Quebec woman who gave cradleboard to Pope wonders why she didn’t get to meet him at Citadel
Global News
Michelle Shenandoah is wondering why she didn't get show Pope Francis the cradleboard at the Citadel in Quebec, after her told her at the Vatican he hoped to see it again.
Michelle Shenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation, is wondering why she didn’t get to meet Pope Francis Wednesday evening at the Citadel in Quebec City, to show him a cradleboard he asked to see.
“We didn’t know until the very last minute that that wasn’t going to happen,” she told Global News.
It’s the same one she took with her to the Vatican in March and gave to the pontiff to reflect on.
“The Holy Father has now been tasked with the responsibility to care for this cradle board overnight,” Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty of the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi told reporters at the time.
For Shenandoah as well as others the board is a symbol of all the Indigenous children lost at residential schools.
“I talked with him about the revocation of the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ and really how that is the basis for all of the assumption of superiority over Indigenous Peoples,” she explained.
At the Vatican the Pope returned the board to her as she requested and, according to Shenandoah, asked to see it again in Canada.
On a programme issued to reporters, the head of the Roman Catholic Church was scheduled to meet with Indigenous representatives as well as government officials at the Citadel Wednesday evening.