Deus Ex Machina: An Indigenous Protester at the Vatican Missionary Exposition

The book closes with an epilogue about Antonio Martin Fernando (1864-1949), an Aboriginal Australian man who protested settler colonialism at the entrance to the Vatican Missionary Exposition of 1925 by giving political leaflets to visitors. Although Fernando may have thought of himself as a lone activist-the title of his leaflet states that he was one of few Indigenous voices at the Vatican-his actions may be considered as one of countless Indigenous acts of resistance during the exposition and beyond. Fernando's narrative, like Edmonia Lewis's story and those conveyed by Indigenous cultural belongings, presents Indigenous peoples engaging with Rome and the Vatican as makers of history and brings us into an Indigenous world beyond the culture of conquest. Rome's transformation into a modern city would not be complete without the Catholic ethnography of the exposition, which attracted over one million visitors from around the globe.