As Rome gears up to host an influx of tourists and pilgrims for the 2025 Jubilee, many visitors to the Eternal City might be unaware that far beneath the ornate ceilings of the Sistine Chapel, lies a vast collection of Indigenous cultural belongings and artifacts, many of which are hidden from the public to this day.听
In , Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, Gloria Bell, brings a magnifying glass to the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exposition, staged by Pope Pius XI, which was built to espouse a narrative of the Catholic Church鈥檚 beneficence to a global congregation. This Exposition displayed thousands of cultural belongings stolen from Indigenous communities from around the globe, and Bell's years of research, as presented in听Eternal Sovereigns,听critically revises that version of history to reveal the "tenacity, mobility, and reception of Indigenous artists, travelers, and activists in 1920s Rome."听
In 鈥淓ternal Sovereigns鈥� Bell focuses on Turtle Island and the Indigenous cultural belongings made by artists from nations including Cree, Lakota, Anishinaabe, Nipissing, Kanien鈥檏eh谩:ka, Wolastoqiyik, and Kwakwaka鈥檞akw. From the halls of the Vatican Apostolic Library and Vatican Secret Archive in Italy to the Yale Divinity Library and Archives in the US, Bell鈥檚 archival research and field interviews will have readers discovering the life and work of Indigenous artist Edmonia Lewis, the stories behind the various Indigenous artworks still held today in the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum, such as a Kanien鈥檏eh谩:ka wampum belt, a Lakota Sun Dance drawing, and Cree beaded moccasins, and the unique and inspiring story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal activist who protested settler colonialism at the entrance of the 1925 exposition.
We spoke to Professor Bell about the origins of 鈥淓ternal Sovereigns鈥�, her experience working in the Vatican archives, and what she鈥檚 most excited for readers to discover in her new book.
Q: How did the idea for this book come about and in what ways did the Terra Foundation for American Art fellowship help guide the research for this book?
GB: I found a small, illustrated guide to the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition when I was doing research on exhibitions of Indigenous art in the early part of the twentieth century and this spurred my scholarly interests. The more research I did the more I realized that this is an untold chapter of the Church鈥檚 history and of Indigenous arts globally. I completed important interviews with curators and further archival research in Rome while I was a Rome Prize fellow at the American Academy. I have encountered quite a bit of resistance to the research and unpacking some of the hard truths, but I continue to work.
Q: Your book 鈥渞eframes histories of collecting and provides an alternative history of world exhibitions鈥� such as the Vatican Missionary Exhibition of 1925. What was the Vatican Missionary Exhibition, and why are its cultural impacts still resonating with Indigenous communities today? What kinds of Indigenous cultural belongings did you find within the Vatican鈥檚 Ethnological Museum Anima Mundi?
GB: Pope Pius XI demanded that everything and anything related to Indigenous life be sent in for his 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition. Indigenous art and ancestors were sent in by missionaries operating to fulfill his greed and lust. Over one million visitors attended the exhibition during its thirteen-month run. The exhibition provided inspiration and was a ground zero for the operation of residential schools in North America, the ideals and values espoused at the exhibition furthered the development of genocidal policies and the destruction of Indigenous life. Thousands of Indigenous artworks and ancestors were seized and sent by missionaries to meet pope Pius XI鈥檚 demands, and these remain like prisoners today in the Vatican Museums in a basement space near the exit called Anima Mundi. Despite requests from Indigenous communities, the Vatican Museums continues to not fully engage in restitution in a gross disregard and violation of human rights. In the book I discuss Indigenous ancestors and belongings held in the Vatican Collections and showcased during the 1925 exhibition including an , Cree moccasins and a . Papal greed and the destruction of Indigenous life represented by this exhibition and its continued afterlife in Anima Mundi continues to impact Indigenous communities today.
Q: Amongst the many libraries in which you conducted research for this book, you spent some time in the Vatican Apostolic Library and the Vatican Secret Archive. How did the archival research conducted there shape your research and Eternal Sovereigns?
GB: I found a flood of archival documents and proof for my project which I then analyze in the book. There is a very substantial paper trail regarding the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exposition and one of the most important archival sources I came across is the Rivista Illustrata, the illustrated journal of the exhibition that includes the problematic writings of missionaries completing their genocidal work in Indigenous communities across the globe in the 1920s. The compelling thing about research is that I continue to find more evidence as time goes by, the process never ends and things unearth themselves at different moments.
Q: The first chapter of your book, 鈥淯nsettling the Indian Museum in Rome鈥� juxtaposes the sculptures of the German artist Ferdinand Pettrich, with the works of Edmonia Lewis, an Ojibwe and Haitian American artist. Who was Edmonia Lewis, and what will readers discover about her life and work?
GB: Edmonia Wildfire Lewis was a sculptor and businessperson who had a studio with twenty assistants working for her in Rome. She created marble and plaster works that explored themes of Catholicism, Indigeneity and Black freedom and liberty. In the book I unpack some of the studio sites she held in Rome and discuss her trips to the Vatican Museums to visit with her Anishnaabe kin and sketch Roman antiquities.
Q: Amongst the histories of Indigenous activists, artists, missionaries and travelers you explore in this book, which ones stand out to you? Which stories are you eager for readers to discover?
GB: I am really excited for readers to learn more about the Anishinaabe and African-American artist Edmonia Lewis and her encounters with Pettrich鈥檚 鈥淚ndian Museum鈥� at the Vatican and their conversations. Both artists lived in exile and were devout Catholics and held studios in Rome. Edmonia Lewis鈥� life and sculptural works continue to defy settler colonial ideas and ideals of Indigeneity and help us understand a more complex world of Indigenous and Black life in Italy and on Turtle Island. Her travels and life choices continue to inspire my scholarship thinking about global Indigenous arts on a continuum.
Q: Eternal Sovereigns includes your personal journal entries, correspondence, and photos you took when visiting the Vatican. Why did you choose to share these personal elements within the context of your research?
GB: I want to expand and challenge what counts as proof and evidence within scholarly study. So often the voices of Indigenous women and children are suppressed in archival documents, and I found this especially true in my work unpacking the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition. I include journal entries, correspondence and photographic interventions in the book to share some of the emotional, spiritual and intellectual dimensions of my work that could not be expressed in more staid forms of writing. I am inspired here by Indigenous academics such as Dian Million and scholars like Ruth Behar who write embodied narratives.
Q: Your book closes with the story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal activist who protested settler colonialism at the entrance of the 1925 exposition. As 2025 marks a whole century since the exhibition and the Vatican鈥檚 upcoming Jubilee year of 鈥渉ope鈥�, how can research such as yours contribute to the sustainment of Indigenous acts of survival and resistance?
GB: Anthony Martin Fernando called on Pope Pius XI to put an end to the genocide of Indigenous peoples that was happening during the brutal assimilationist period of the 1920s not only in Australia but across the globe and especially on Turtle Island. His protest inspires my scholarship. Although it has been almost 100 years the rhetoric of Truth and Reconciliation continues at the Vatican Museums. The Vatican Museums maintains that everything is a 鈥済ift "in their collections and this is a false narrative. Many of the 鈥済ifts鈥� were made by children in residential schools held against their will. Indigenous ancestors were stolen by missionaries completing their genocidal work. Every time I visit the archives and collections I find more evidence. It is my hope that this scholarship will offer up a more complex understanding of Indigenous arts held in the Vatican Museums and that people will think critically about visits to Anima Mundi which continues to hold Indigenous ancestors like prisoners. I will be travelling to Rome soon to do an homage to Anthony Martin Fernando and continue my research to highlight Indigenous sovereignties.
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Gloria J. Bell is an art historian, creative writer and arts consultant based at 海角社区. Her research interests include historical and contemporary Indigenous arts, archival studies, and photography. You can find Bell鈥檚 art criticism and essays in publications including听Female Cultural Production in Modern Italy: Literature, Art and Intellectual History, Wicazo Sa Review,听(Un)Following in Winnetou鈥檚 Footsteps,听First American Art Magazine,听Journal of Global Catholicism, and听KULA.听Bell鈥檚 work has received numerous prestigious awards including the Terra Foundation Rome Prize, and numerous grants including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada听Insight Grant and the Fonds qu茅becois de la recherche sur la soci茅te et la culture New Researchers Award. Bell is the 2024 Sir William Dobell Fellow at the Center for Art History and Art Theory, Australian National University.