Indigenous Presenters Gathering set for Wolfe Island in October

Jeff Green | Sep 11, 2024

Wolfe Islander Terri-Lynne Brennan appeared before the Planning and Economic Development Advisory Committee (PEDAC) of Frontenac County Council on September 4th, to discuss an event that is coming to Marysville in early October, and to seek a letter of support.

Brennan is the Treasurer of the Lodge Pole Arts Alliance, a collective that is part of the Wolfe Island Commons that is based at the Hotel Wolfe Island in Marysville. She was joined by JP Longboat, chair of the Alliance.

Between October 7 and 10, Lodge Pole Arts Alliance will be hosting the first ever national gathering of Indigenous Arts Presenters at the hotel, with planned visits to outdoor locations on the island and across the water in Kingston as well.

Brennan explained the term arts presenters, which she described as a short term to refer to artistic directors, producers, curators, Pow Wow organisers, “people who contract artists” in the both performing and visual arts spaces.

She said that there aren’t a lof indigenous presenters, calling it an “area of administration that is really lackin”, but across the country there is a strong cohort of people engaged in this work, and some of them, 70 at last count, will be gathering for four days in Frontenac County to compare notes and discuss the state of indigenous arts programming in Canada now and into the future.

Frontenac County Council members will be invited to an opening night feast on October 7, and some of the events over the weekend will also be open to the public.

She also talked about how the Lodge Pole Arts Alliance has been seeking a land base for its activities, which are grounded on Eastern Woodland (Haudenosaunee and Anishnabe) cultural practices, and has made a proposal to purchase Lemoine Point Farm in Kingston.

The committee agreed to recommend that Frontenac County Council approve a letter of support for the Presenters Gathering at their meeting on September 18.

Physician Recruitment

Lori Richey, the Physician Recruiter for Peterborough County made a presentation to the committee about the Eastern Ontario Recruitment Alliance, which is a collaborative model for International Physician Recruitment among Eastern Ontario municipalities. Richey said that one of the main targets of the Alliance’s efforts are Canadian’s who have gone to medical school outside of Canada and may be persuaded to come back to practice family medicine in Canada.

“Our intention is to find these people which is not always easy, and then to present Eastern Ontario as a region where opportunities exist for them,” she said

She said that while physician recruiters in Eastern Ontario, like herself, participate in recruitment fairs across the province, it is now necessary to go further afield, which is difficult to do with the limited budgets that Ontario municipalities have for physician recruitment.

By joining the alliance, Frontenac County would have access to the alliance website and tracking tools, among other benefits.

The cost to join the alliance is $500 for the rest of 2024, and $5,000 for 2025.

The Committee is recommending that Frontenac County Council join the alliance, and the matter will be dealt with at the September meeting of Council.

PEDAC is made up of one Frontenac County Council representative from each township, and a public appointee from each township as well. Three of the four Frontenac Mayors sit on the committee, which is being chaired in 2024 by Deputy Warden Ron Vandewal.