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Re: Proposed museum attracts attention
Globe
Link to article
Natives push for inclusion in proposed museum
Planning of facility ignores 11,000 years of Toronto's past, leaders argue
KATE HARRIES
Special to The Globe and Mail
Descendants of the people who first lived in what is now the Toronto area say they're being left out of the planning for a proposed museum that would set out the region's history.
"I'm so disappointed," said Kawartha Nishnawbe Chief Kris Nahrgang, who's one of many aboriginal leaders who have been pushing for a facility to house artifacts dug up from archeological sites across the city. "Our culture's beautiful. I'm just so sad that they don't acknowledge it."
Recent developments in the Toronto Museum Project, as it's known, include identification of a possible site -- a 3.6-acre city-owned parcel at the foot of Bathurst Street next to the old Canada Malting Co. silo. Former Toronto mayor David Crombie and former Parkdale MP Sarmite Bulte have accepted positions on the launch board as honorary chair and chair, respectively.
Mr. Nahrgang said he's upset that the project has progressed to this point without any attempt to engage descendants of the people who inhabited this area for 11,000 years.
Rita Davies, executive director of the city's culture division, insists that native concerns are integral to the project. "We're at the very early stages of this project," she said. "There is every intention that there will be native representation."
But Luc Laine, the Huron Wendat Nation's cultural liaison representative for Ontario, said it's a common aboriginal experience for consultation to start after key decisions have been made. "We say in French, it's a fait accompli -- so that's exactly what we're trying to change."
Archeological consultant Ron Williamson is a strong supporter of a museum that would tell the city's story. But he worries that the project's focus is the colonial period and the modern multicultural era -- the most recent 250 years, not the previous 11,000 years.
"The fact that we could have a decade of conversation about a museum without first nations playing a significant role in that conversation -- that is astounding," he said, suggesting that an aboriginal representative should have been among the first selections to the board.
"We just wanted to make sure we had the beginning of a leadership team," Ms. Davies responds. A proposal will probably go to Toronto council this fall at which time the decision will be made about the site and a launch board established.
Ms. Davies said the culture division was asked to come up with ideas for redevelopment of the Bathurst Street site, which is distinguished by the "iconic feature of the silos -- so we have that as a really strong symbol of the industrial past."
Fundraising will be a significant element of the board's responsibilities. A 2004 feasibility study for Humanitas, as the museum project was dubbed at that time, suggested $130-million but that may be scaled down to the $100-million range, she said.
Ms. Davies said that the feasibility study did involve consultation with numerous organizations and individuals, including native groups. The report lists 380 participants, among them half a dozen representatives from organizations such as the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and the Toronto Métis Council.
But that was not meaningful consultation, Mr. Nahrgang said, because while those urban organizations perform important functions as friendship centres, they don't represent local communities.
"It's just not right, you're not talking to the right people, and that's why consultation is not proper when it's done in that manner," he said. "You need to be speaking with the chiefs and councils, with the legitimate people who speak for this area."
Mr. Nahrgang has spearheaded the organization of a founding first nations circle to respond to government, developers and any other groups on issues involving cultural artifacts and sacred sites.
Currently engaged in a variety of negotiations regarding archeological sites, ossuaries and burial grounds in the GTA, the circle is made up of six people, with two representatives from each of the principal aboriginal groups in this area -- the Huron, the Iroquois and the Ojibwa.
The principal native groups that left their historic imprint on this area are the Huron Wendat, the Kawartha Nishnawbe, the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and the Six Nations.
Mr. Laine said the museum would be a wonderful opportunity to teach people -- especially newcomers to Canada -- about aboriginal customs and culture. Toronto is a Huron word, meaning "meeting place," he noted. The Huron settled the north shore of Lake Ontario up to Georgian Bay but were driven out, to Quebec, where they now live.
He said Huron Wendat Grand Chief Max Gros-Louis has been trying to arrange a meeting with Mayor David Miller for several months to discuss cultural issues and the need to preserve and showcase Toronto's native history.
Don Wanagas, a spokesman for the mayor, said his office is trying to schedule a meeting with Mr. Gros-Louis in May. "As for the Toronto museum, the mayor is adamant that first nations representatives must be involved in any such project," he said. "However, the museum is only a proposal at this point in time."
*****
I appreciate the Natives' effort to get their culture included in the Toronto Museum project, but perhaps a museum on the City of Toronto isn't the best place to do it. If the Natives want more presence among Toronto's museums, the ROM, which already has exhibits on the First Nations, is probably the best place for it.
Otherwise, the Natives should consider starting up a new museum in Toronto to showcase their culture. Toronto certainly has room for one more museum.
Globe
Link to article
Natives push for inclusion in proposed museum
Planning of facility ignores 11,000 years of Toronto's past, leaders argue
KATE HARRIES
Special to The Globe and Mail
Descendants of the people who first lived in what is now the Toronto area say they're being left out of the planning for a proposed museum that would set out the region's history.
"I'm so disappointed," said Kawartha Nishnawbe Chief Kris Nahrgang, who's one of many aboriginal leaders who have been pushing for a facility to house artifacts dug up from archeological sites across the city. "Our culture's beautiful. I'm just so sad that they don't acknowledge it."
Recent developments in the Toronto Museum Project, as it's known, include identification of a possible site -- a 3.6-acre city-owned parcel at the foot of Bathurst Street next to the old Canada Malting Co. silo. Former Toronto mayor David Crombie and former Parkdale MP Sarmite Bulte have accepted positions on the launch board as honorary chair and chair, respectively.
Mr. Nahrgang said he's upset that the project has progressed to this point without any attempt to engage descendants of the people who inhabited this area for 11,000 years.
Rita Davies, executive director of the city's culture division, insists that native concerns are integral to the project. "We're at the very early stages of this project," she said. "There is every intention that there will be native representation."
But Luc Laine, the Huron Wendat Nation's cultural liaison representative for Ontario, said it's a common aboriginal experience for consultation to start after key decisions have been made. "We say in French, it's a fait accompli -- so that's exactly what we're trying to change."
Archeological consultant Ron Williamson is a strong supporter of a museum that would tell the city's story. But he worries that the project's focus is the colonial period and the modern multicultural era -- the most recent 250 years, not the previous 11,000 years.
"The fact that we could have a decade of conversation about a museum without first nations playing a significant role in that conversation -- that is astounding," he said, suggesting that an aboriginal representative should have been among the first selections to the board.
"We just wanted to make sure we had the beginning of a leadership team," Ms. Davies responds. A proposal will probably go to Toronto council this fall at which time the decision will be made about the site and a launch board established.
Ms. Davies said the culture division was asked to come up with ideas for redevelopment of the Bathurst Street site, which is distinguished by the "iconic feature of the silos -- so we have that as a really strong symbol of the industrial past."
Fundraising will be a significant element of the board's responsibilities. A 2004 feasibility study for Humanitas, as the museum project was dubbed at that time, suggested $130-million but that may be scaled down to the $100-million range, she said.
Ms. Davies said that the feasibility study did involve consultation with numerous organizations and individuals, including native groups. The report lists 380 participants, among them half a dozen representatives from organizations such as the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and the Toronto Métis Council.
But that was not meaningful consultation, Mr. Nahrgang said, because while those urban organizations perform important functions as friendship centres, they don't represent local communities.
"It's just not right, you're not talking to the right people, and that's why consultation is not proper when it's done in that manner," he said. "You need to be speaking with the chiefs and councils, with the legitimate people who speak for this area."
Mr. Nahrgang has spearheaded the organization of a founding first nations circle to respond to government, developers and any other groups on issues involving cultural artifacts and sacred sites.
Currently engaged in a variety of negotiations regarding archeological sites, ossuaries and burial grounds in the GTA, the circle is made up of six people, with two representatives from each of the principal aboriginal groups in this area -- the Huron, the Iroquois and the Ojibwa.
The principal native groups that left their historic imprint on this area are the Huron Wendat, the Kawartha Nishnawbe, the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and the Six Nations.
Mr. Laine said the museum would be a wonderful opportunity to teach people -- especially newcomers to Canada -- about aboriginal customs and culture. Toronto is a Huron word, meaning "meeting place," he noted. The Huron settled the north shore of Lake Ontario up to Georgian Bay but were driven out, to Quebec, where they now live.
He said Huron Wendat Grand Chief Max Gros-Louis has been trying to arrange a meeting with Mayor David Miller for several months to discuss cultural issues and the need to preserve and showcase Toronto's native history.
Don Wanagas, a spokesman for the mayor, said his office is trying to schedule a meeting with Mr. Gros-Louis in May. "As for the Toronto museum, the mayor is adamant that first nations representatives must be involved in any such project," he said. "However, the museum is only a proposal at this point in time."
*****
I appreciate the Natives' effort to get their culture included in the Toronto Museum project, but perhaps a museum on the City of Toronto isn't the best place to do it. If the Natives want more presence among Toronto's museums, the ROM, which already has exhibits on the First Nations, is probably the best place for it.
Otherwise, the Natives should consider starting up a new museum in Toronto to showcase their culture. Toronto certainly has room for one more museum.
