Algonquin Sharing Day in Maberly

Jun 30, 2011

Photos: Algonquin Sharing Day in Maberly

A group of 30 gathered at the Maberly hall on June 25 for a day of Algonquin sharing organized by Dr. Lynn Gehl. The first event of its kind to be held in Maberly, the day included a number of panel discussions led by a roster of academic speakers on topics ranging from the Algonquin Land Claim and self government, the South March Highlands, education, identity, the Treaty at Niagara Wampum Belt Exchange and much, much more. The day also included a potluck feast and the event attracted all kinds of interested members of the community aboriginal and not from near and far.

I arrived near the end of the day just in time for Dr. Gehl's talk on Wampum diplomacy and her presentation of her very own Wampum bundle. She spoke of the symbolic significance of her three Wampum belts; the British and Western Great Lakes Confederacy Belt, the Two Road Wampum Belt and the 24 Nations Wampum Belt. All three demonstrate the Algonquin tradition of symbolic literacy and represent artifacts that date back to the Treaty of Niagara in 1764, where the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was ratified, and which Dr. Gehl described as Canada's first constitutional document and a good example of what came to be known as forked tongue diplomacy.

A second panel discussed the topic “Protecting the Land” and focused on the South March Highlands, located on unceded Algonquin land near Kanata. The lands have recently have been the site of much controversy and protests when developers began cutting down the conservation forest there. Grandfather William Commanda, the 97-year-old spiritual elder for Algonquins in Ontario, has declared the area sacred. Currently, various community groups along with members of the Algonquin community are protesting the cutting, declaring it as “violence against nature”.

Daniel Bernard Amikwbe, who helped organize the Algonquin Sharing Day, said the topic took up a good deal of discussion at the Maberly event because “it represents a pivotal point for Algonquin people right now.”

Bonita Lawrence, a professor of indigenous studies at York University, spoke about her project on Algonquin identity, which will be published next year under the title “Fractured Homeland; Identity and Survival in Federally Unrecognized Algonquin Communities in Ontario”. Over a period of seven years, Lawrence interviewed Algonquins across the territory about their views on homeland and identity.

Also in attendance at the event was Mireille Lapointe, co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, who teaches Algonquin studies at the high school level and who weighed in on the discussion about “Decolonizing Education”. “Education is very important and up to this point we have always had the colonizers’ model of education and history. But that is slowly changing which is something I never thought I'd see. Now not only are Aboriginal studies becoming more mainstream in Ontario, but also a lot of the books being written are by indigenous people; so not only is it important that these courses continue be funded but what is more is that the teachers themselves be educated in indigenous issues at the college level as well.”

Marcello Saavedra Vargas of the Quechua-Aymara nation of South America, who is a professor of Aboriginal studies at Ottawa University, also attended the event to learn more about the Anishnabe people and came as an ambassador of his people. He was very interested in the teaching of the Wampum diplomacy and the Wampum belts and said, “Oral traditions are very important for indigenous people because we feel that oral forms keep knowledge alive and vibrant. The moment you put knowledge in written form in a way you are killing the spirit of that knowledge.”

Dr. Gehl's aim for the Day of Sharing was “to share Algonquin knowledge and the research that is being produced in the academy with Algonquin people and also to ensure that academics are working with Algonquins for our cause not just their own cause. We want to start a dialogue and it is important for Algonquin scholars to make allies with other scholars as well.”

Dr. Gehl surpassed that goal and it looks as though there will more Algonquin Days of Sharing in the future.