Chief Wilton Littlechild, a residential school survivor himself, gave Francis the headdress Monday, placing it on his head amid cheering by an audience in Maskwacis, Alberta, that included many sch…
It was a stunning image: Pope Francis briefly wearing a full Indigenous headdress, its rows of soft white feathers fastened in place by a colorful, beaded headband after he apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s “disastrous” residential school system for Indigenous children.
The Vatican obviously understood the symbolic significance of the moment, putting the photo on the front page of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano under the headline “I humbly beg forgiveness.” Russ Diabo, a member of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe in Canada and an Indigenous advocate and policy analyst, described the scene as “pageantry” and the pope’s statements as “facile.”
“I am practicing ‘If you can’t say anything positive, don’t say anything at all’ mantra. But I’ll be honest, it’s difficult!,” added Horse Capture, a member of the A’aniiih Nation. Black Elk said later in a telephone interview that the mixed reaction to the headdress being placed on the pope’s head “reflects the reality of native people and our need for more dialogue” about the past.
Jon Crier, a First Nations elder and residential schools survivor, said during a news conference after the apology that the gesture meant tribal leaders “adopted him as one of our leaders in the community.
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