A permanent installation honouring Indigenous Peoples will go up at Huntsville’s Town Hall in the spring.
A boulder engraved with the town’s land acknowledgement statement will be placed in the park between Town Hall and Trinity United Church. Religiously significant plants such as sage and sweetgrass will be grown around the rock, and a pair of bronze children’s moccasins will sit on top in memory of Indigenous children who died at residential schools.
“We wanted to recognize and remember the children that were lost in residential schools, and that’s part of the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation report,” says Karin Terziano, Mayor of Huntsville. “They targeted provincial and federal governments to do something permanent, but I think we feel it’s important that as a municipal government, we try to do something as well.”
Council approved up to $4,000 be used for the project at Huntsville’s November council meeting, following a presentation by Terziano.
She says she has since received guidance from the Muskoka Area Indigenous Leadership Table, as well as the Culture and Heritage Department at Chippewas of Rama First Nation on the placement and orientation of the boulder, among other specifics.
Joyce Crone, a Mohawk woman and Indigenous Activist in Huntsville, has been involved with the project since early on. She says she’s glad Huntsville is moving forward with the idea.
“It’s a true acknowledgement that we were here prior to the people of Huntsville being here, and that is just very affirming,” says Crone. “It’s giving us back something that was taken.”
Another consideration is to carve a smudge bowl into the top of the rock, to allow for the site to be used as a sacred space, according to Crone.
“I really think every community should be doing a land acknowledgement in some permanent form,” says Crone. “I think it gives an excellent basis for Indigenous People to be respected in our communities that are non-Indigenous. Over 80 per cent of us live off of reserves.”
According to Terziano, the bronzework and engraving will be done over the winter, with the boulder put in place with a special ceremony in early May.
“[It’s] not that we want the land back, but we have to be reconciled to it, and I think the land acknowledgement is a great first step towards that,” says Crone.