Who is Telling Our Story?

I was recently in the Rotary Park in Pentatanguishene, ON looking for a new mural that had been installed.  I hadn’t been to this park since the Rendezvous de Champlain Festival in 2015.  Many new statues had been erected including one depicting the meeting of Samuel de Champlain and the Chief of the Wendat people who inhabited the area.  It is pictured here along with a local ring-billed gull atop Champlain’s hat.

Several new statues had been erected depicting some of the early Catholic priests in the area, the Metis Nation and the Wendat people.  In addition to these were three information plaques which will look familiar to anyone who has visited an historical site in Ontario.  But why three?  English, French and what else?  Upon closer inspection, I discovered that there were also plaques on the back of the plaques, totaling 6 languages.  Well, I have never seen this before so I examined each one and discovered that indeed the information was in English, French, the language of the Anishinabe people, the language of the Mohawk people, the language of the Montagnais-Innu people and in the language of the Wendat people.  Each plaque said that Champlain had encountered these people in 1615.

French

Here is what it says in English:

Champlain in Ontario, 1615

In April 1615, Samuel de Champlain (c.1574-1635) embarked from Honfleur, upon his seventh voyage to New France.  Upon arrival in Quebec, Champlain was informed of increasing tensions with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) the traditional rival of his Anishinabe (Algonquin) and Wendat (Huron) allies.  He travelled west to Huronia on a diplomatic and military expedition where he visited several villages including Cahiague, a large and important Wendat settlement.  With a mixed force of 400-500 First Nations warriors and a few Europeans, Champlain travelled southeast along the Trent River system, crossed Lake Ontario and attacked a fortified Haudenosaunee village in present-day New York State.  Lacking reinforcements, facing a formidable enemy and in early winter, the allies withdrew to Cahiague with the wounded Champlain.  During his recovery in Huronia he visited nearby Anishinabe and Tionontati (Petun) settlements.  Although later European contact brought epidemics and escalating conflict that had a profound impact on indigenous peoples, the alliances that Champlain helped establish survived.  He returned to France the following August and later published important detailed descriptions of the peoples, societies and landscapes of what would become Ontario.

Ontario Heritage Trust, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

I am not a linguist so I don’t know if the plaque was written first in English or French but the French was on the back of the English so perhaps it was first written in English.  I remember the old saying that history is written by the victorious and so when I read the plaque in English I looked for that bias.  I have to wonder what the plaques would have read if they had been written in the other five languages first.  What story would the Wendat who got virtually wiped out in Ontario soon after Champlain visited,would have told?  I wonder what story the Haudenosaunee would have told or the Anishinabe? I’m not sure but it’s worth thinking about how our history, our story as a province, as a nation would be told from the perspective of the other people who did not end up holding the majority of the power and so did not write the story on the commemorative plaque.

Language of the Anishinabe people

Language of the Wendat people

Language of the Mohawk people

Language of the Montagnais-Innu people

Having the story told in six languages is a good step.  How many of us have tried to read these languages out loud?  How many of us have heard the languages spoken?  I took pictures of all six plaques because this seems to me to be part of our new story.  But to get to the actual story of the impact that Samuel de Champlain had here in Ontario, we would have to listen to it being told from many different perspectives.  Imagine sitting in a big circle and hearing the story told in different languages, with different voices and different perspectives.  It would be challenging to be sure but the collective story would hold more truth than the narrative that the English plaque reveals.  

As we work through identifying colonial stories and decolonizing our own thinking to move ahead with open minds and open hearts, we can begin to hear the story told from other viewpoints and co-create a new story that is closer to the truth.

English 

Young Photographer Tells the Story of the Homeless

I found the story of 17-year-old photographer Lia Denbok on an email from change.org.  Lia is from Collingwood, ON and has been taking pictures since she was 14.  Inspired by the work of  British photographer Lee Jeffries who photographed homeless people, Lia decided to do the same.

Teen photographer Lia Denbock

She and her dad walk the streets of Toronto, New York, Barrie and other cities meeting people who are homeless.  They explain their project and pay their models.  While Lia takes their pictures, her dad, Tim Denbok speaks with the person and listens to some of their life story.

This project is especially important to Lia because her own mother Sara Denbok was found on the streets of Calcutta alone and injured at age 3.  The police took her to Mother Teresa’s orphanage where she lived for a few years before being adopted by a couple from Stayner, ON.

Lia’s mission is to highlight the problem of homelessness as well as to humanize the people who are homeless.  Once she starts to photograph each person, they become just that – a person like any other.   Lia is publishing a book called Nowhere to Call Home with 40 of her photos alongside the stories of each person.  The book will be released in the fall and all of the proceeds will go to the Barrie Bayside Mission Centre.

You can watch a 10 minute clip from CBC’s The National about this project here . Lia is passionate about her work and inspiring to listen to.  Here are some of her photos from her Instagram page.  You can also follow Leah’s work on Instagram at this link.   This is a young woman who is telling our new story.

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Music Connects Strangers

I am not a sports fan and so I haven’t experienced firsthand how sports events bring people together but I am told that it is very powerful.  However, I recently had several experiences of groups of people connecting through music and I got to feel the power of that.

Leonard Cohen

Last weekend, I attended Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, ON.  There, I had several experiences of feeling connected to hundreds of people that I didn’t even know.  One of these was at a workshop called Dear Leonard, where musicians celebrated the music of Leonard Cohen who recently passed away.  It was great to hear his music through the voices of other musicians.  The final song was Cohen’s iconic Hallelujah which everyone sang along to on the chorus.  Together we sang hallelujah over and over again using Leonard’s own song to give thanks for his voice and his words and his music.  It was an experience of shared love, sorrow and gratitude that connected us all.  I was deeply touched.

Stuart McLean

Another experience came in the very next workshop which was a celebration of the life of Stuart McLean.  Musicians that had worked with Stuart on the radio show Vinyl Café shared songs and stories about the much loved broadcaster who also passed away this year.  Hundreds of people filled all the grassy spaces that were available.  We were all there because we loved Stuart McLean.  That connected us and as the stories were shared, we remembered our own stories which was appropriate because he was such a great storyteller.  I imagined him telling the story of the workshop we were at.  I could hear his laconic voice in my head.¸

Matt Anderson

But the magic came in the very last song.  Blues singer Matt Anderson who Stuart had helped along in his career sang the mournful song Feel Like Going Home.  The words “going home” have many meanings and the song allowed us to feel the sadness of losing our storyteller and also the safety of home.  Matt’s huge voice created a space that connected us all in our sadness and gratitude.  On the last “home” he held the word for what felt like minutes.  The space for all of us in the word “home” grew and grew.  For those moments, we were all in this home together, joined by the sound of Matt’s voice. (You can hear one rendition of Matt singing this song here.)  To me, it felt like our hearts were beating together in that space.  And then the song ended, we all stood and applauded and then went on our way.  But I don`t think any of us walked away the same person as we were walking in.

Gordon Lightfoot

Later on in the evening, Gordon Lightfoot came on stage as he often does, to sing a few songs while they set up for the next band.  I have experienced this phenomenon in previous years as well.  When he comes on stage, people stand to greet him – thousands of people.  And when he starts to sing with his aged, thin voice, there is almost total silence.  His voice is weak and so everyone is reverently quiet so that they can hear him.  We are connected by respect for this folk singer, for all his songs have meant to many of us throughout the years and for the fact that he comes to Mariposa because it is in his home town and because he loves being there.

Buffy Sainte-Marie

The week before the festival, I was fortunate enough to hear Buffy Sainte-Marie perform in Midland in a small venue of about 300 people.  The audience was made up of  the young and old, women and men.  Buffy started strong and continued that way for 75 minutes.  She sang old songs and a brand new one.  She spoke from the heart, from her truth and smiled her beautiful smile.  But once she started to sing, I noticed that a lot of the women, including myself, were singing along with her.  We knew all the words.  When she sang the words from powwow songs with a voice strong and pure, we sang right along feeling just as strong.  I can’t remember ever being in an audience where the women’s voices were the ones that you heard – where women sang from their depths with free voices.  Buffy gave us all permission to do that just by being herself.  The young women wore Buffy t-shirts, the older women stood a little taller, felt a lot stronger and proud to be women.  We left the concert empowered.

That is the power of music.  It creates a collective space where we can gather, united and feel safe, feel like ourselves, express emotions that we keep inside most of the time and experience community.  I will always remember singing Starwalker along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, singing Hallelujah with the people at Mariposa and being held and lifted up by Matt Anderson`s Feel Like Going Home.  These are the experiences that enrich my life, that feed my spirit and that keep me going. They become part of my story. But these are not just my stories.  They are the stories of all the people I shared them with.  We are now a part of each other stories.  We are always building new stories and those stories will define who we are and who we become.  That is the power of stories.

Richard Wagamese

And so I'd like to end with a quote from one of my favourite storytellers, Richard Wagamese who also passed away this year.  This is from his last book Embers (p. 46) "This human family we are part of, this singular voice that is the accumulations of all voices raised together in praise of all Creation, this one heartbeat, this one drum, this one immaculate love that put us here together so that we could learn its primary teaching -- that love is the energy of Creation, that it takes love to create love." 

Looking Towards the Next 150

Here are some stories of hope and healing that happened alongside the more traditional Canada 150 celebrations.

Along the Healing Path

Just down the street from us in Waubaushene, ON a new mural was unveiled on the Tay Trail.  The mural is titled Nikeyaa noojimowin miikanaans or Along the Healing Path.  Designed by Midland art student, Richelle Chartrand McCue and painted with her fellow high school students, the mural is a response to the Truth and Reconciliation process that Canadians are currently engaged in.  McCue is Indigenous and the project inspired her to learn more about her culture.  The animals in the mural represent the Seven Grandfather teachings  which are Humility (wolf), Bravery (bear), Honesty (Sabe), Wisdom (beaver), Truth (turtle), Respect (buffalo) and Love (eagle).

Nikeyaa noojimowin miikanaans, Along the Healing Path

  

The township and local businesses provided the funds for materials and installation.  The mural is on the Tay Trail where hundreds of people can view it as they cycle, walk and run along this lakeside path.  We are so honoured to have this beautiful reminder of healing at the end of our street.  The times we have stood and looked at it or read the comprehensive information plaque near the trail, people have stopped to look at it as well and quite a few conversations have ensued so far.

You can view a CTV news video about this project here and see the students creating the project.  The township wanted a mural, the school said yes, an art teacher suggested the theme of Truth and Reconciliation, the students did the work and the community provided the funds and now all the residents and visitors to the area can be a part of the story as well.  

Medicine Wheel, the Bear and the Voice of a Nation
Another local Midland artist Paul Whittam who signs his work with his Anishinaabeg name Negik (Star Otter) created an inclusive art project in Toronto for Canada Day.  He returned to the city of his birth for this project.  Although Paul was taken from his family in the Sixties Scoop, he has reconnected with his birth family and not only expresses Anishinaabeg culture in his artwork but he also spends time teaching young people about this culture.

The initial mural that Negik brought to Toronto

So on July 1^st he took the beginnings of a 4 x 8 foot acrylic canvas to Thompson Memorial Park in Toronto and invited the public to add to it using their hand prints.  The piece is called "Medicine wheel, the Bear and the Voice of a Nation". 

Medicine Wheel, the Bear and the Voice of a Nation with artist Negik
on the right when the mural was completed.

Here are some photos from his facebook page of visitors to the mural. You can view more of Negik’s beautiful art on his facebook page.

Voice from the Teepee
If you were following the Canada 150 story in Ottawa, you may have heard about people erecting a teepee on Parliament Hill.  After the RCMP tried to take it down, through negotiations it was moved to a different location near to the stage. 

Trudeau leaves teepee (photo: MacLeans)

 On Canada Day, PM Justin Trudeau and Sofie Gregoire Trudeau spent time sitting with the occupants in the teepee but Trudeau didn`t say what was discussed inside to the media.  So if you are curious to know what the teepee was all about, here is a short video  to explain it from the occupants side.

Sarain Fox  (photo sarainfox.com)

“The teepee is a symbol of the reoccupation of Canada.  What I want people to know as we approach Canada 150 is that the reoccupation of Canada is just one way that we are changing the narrative for the next 150 years,” says Sarain Fox, Anishinaabe professional dancer, choreographer and actor. Sarain’s voice is an important one to listen to.  It is part of our new narrative and listening to each other is one of the main foundations of reconciliation.

I was curious to know more about this well spoken, clear, young woman so I googled her and found her website.   There I found a 9 minute video called Sarain Winneway Short (watch it here)  which documents Sarain’s trip to the community of Winneway First Nation in Quebec to give dance workshops for the kids of all ages in the community.  The video is very hopeful as she works with the kids to explore movement, dance, healthy living, traditional strengths such as the circle and working together. The kids respond to her enthusiasm and skill and participate in performing for their community.  This video will bring a smile to your face.

Kids in Winneway First Nation watch their classmates perform with Sarain Fox behind them

All of these young artists are well aware of the harm that has been done in the past and they are using their art to create new stories for all of our children and grandchildren.  They are confronting the truth and finding a healing path forward.  Their artistic gifts and voices are ones we can learn from and be inspired by as we all move along this healing path together.