Indigenous experts, leaders say Vatican's Doctrine of Discovery rejection marks step forward 

Indigenous experts and leaders in the Edmonton region say the Catholic Church's rejection of the Doctrine of Discovery is a significant step toward reconciliation.

"This is a historic day," said Matthew Wildcat, a member of Ermineskin Cree Nation and an assistant professor in the political science and Native Studies faculties at the University of Alberta.

Speaking with CBC News on Thursday, Wildcat said the proclamation will change how the history of colonization will be taught.

The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal concept, backed by 15th-century papal bulls, that justified Europeans' claiming of Indigenous lands. Court cases in the U.S. and Canada have relied on the doctrine. 

"As the moral conscience of Europe, the Vatican enabled Christian empires to commit genocide, starve, relocate and dispossess Indigenous peoples from these lands in the name of the Doctrine of Discovery," the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nations said in a news release on Thursday afternoon. 

Leading up to and during Pope Francis's visit to Canada last summer, many Indigenous people urged him to rescind the doctrine. 

The Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations said that was residential school survivors' "most prominent request."

In Maskwacis, Alta., the Pope apologized for church members' role in the residential school system but he did not mention the doctrine. 

Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith told CBC News he believed the Pope's visit to Alberta, and the delegation of Indigenous peoples that went to the Vatican, paved the way for Thursday's announcement.

"The Pope was deeply moved by his encounters with Indigenous peoples, and he stated that openly and along the way, we could see the profound impact it was having just from his own facial reaction," he said. 

He said the Pope, having returned home, "clearly gave direction to his officials" to release a new statement — one that took time to complete and should not have been rushed.

Blake Desjarlais,  Edmonton Griesbach MP and the only Indigenous member of parliament in Alberta, said Thursday's statement is a "huge recognition" for Indigenous peoples.

"The question of whose land is this has been answered by the Pope's repudiation of this doctrine," said the NDP MP.

Aaron Paquette, the Indigenous city councillor for Ward Dene in Edmonton, said the church's repudiation of the doctrine opens the door to legislation changes. It could also help advance conversations about giving large swaths of crown land back to Indigenous peoples, he said.