Indigenous activists want Macdonald statue removed
Sculpture hit with red paint again; township councillor wants to ‘pause’ spending on Prime Ministers Path
BADEN —
The public statue of Sir John A. Macdonald must be removed because of the pain and hurt it symbolizes for Indigenous peoples, say two local Indigenous women.
The statue, and the history it represents, should instead be placed in a museum, said Lori Campbell, director of the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre at the University of Waterloo and adjunct lecturer in Indigenous Studies.
Red paint was poured on the statue of Canada’s first Prime Minister at Castle Kilbride in Baden on the weekend. It was cleaned by volunteers, then paint was poured on it again over
night Monday. The statue is now covered with a tarp.
If the statue doesn’t come down, it could be a target again, said Donna Dubie, executive director of the Kitchener-based agency of the Healing of the Seven Generations.
Wilmot Township Coun. Angie Hallman is calling on the municipality to “pause” any further spending on the statue project called the Prime Ministers Path until Indigenous groups are consulted.
“Residents of Wilmot are speaking up, and want to find ways to strengthen the relationship on the basis of respect and trust,” Hallman said at a township council meeting Monday night.
Hallman said her proposal will be voted on at the next council meeting in July.
“To suggest we have all the answers is another colonial answer. That is not a solution,” Hallman said in an interview. She reached out to local Indigenous groups to be part of the discussion.
Campbell said the pain of Indigenous peoples has been well documented by royal commissions, an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and the truth and reconciliation commission.
“I don’t think we need to waste money on consultation. We know that Indigenous peoples don’t want to witness these figures in public spaces that remind us of the violence and trauma that they have caused us in our lives,” she said.
Real transformational change means “correcting the erasure in our education system,” she said.
“I don’t think we need a community forum that is going to require Indigenous peoples to yet again say why they don’t want to commemorate historical figures who have contributed to the trauma that our families are living through,” Campbell said.
Macdonald helped create the residential school system that assimilated Indigenous children for more than a century. His legacy contributed to the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their land, their families and their culture.
“He didn’t do it for our benefit. He did it to get rid of Indigenous peoples,” Campbell said. “To kill the Indian within the child.”
Macdonald perpetuated “cultural genocide” which caused trauma and harm to many including Campbell, whose grandmother went to a residential school.
“The effects of his policies we are still feeling today,” she said.
Dubie knows the pain firsthand. Her father was taken from his family when he was five and lived in residential schools until he was 14, trying to run away at least three times.
Dubie and her siblings lived with the aftermath of the residential schools. From her personal experience, Dubie founded the Kitchener agency almost 20 years ago and helps other Indigenous people and their descendants cope with the trauma of those residential schools, where children were starved, abused and forbidden to speak their own language.
For Dubie, the paint on the statue should kick-start a community discussion with individuals of white privilege about Indigenous peoples and the racism they face daily.
“Let’s talk about this and see it from our lens,” she said.
The monument is part of a display called Prime Ministers Path on the grounds of the historic home and museum, which also holds the township offices.
Entitled “A Canadian Conversation,” the statue of Macdonald was sculpted by Ruth Abernethy and unveiled in 2016, ahead of the Canada’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2017. It’s one of five statues of Canadian prime ministers on the property.
The local statue project, first proposed in 2013, had trouble finding a home. Initially planned for Victoria Park in Kitchener, the idea was rejected after community backlash.
Two years later, Wilfrid Laurier University agreed to allow the statues to be placed on campus, but the decision was later reversed following considerable outcry and lack of consultation.
Campbell said many in the community know and understand Indigenous history and they, too, don’t support controversial historical figures being commemorated.
“It would be wrong to assume that it had to be an Indigenous person that vandalized the statute,” she said.
Dubie hopes the time has come that Indigenous peoples will be listened to.
“We are in a different time now and hopefully we can move forward with a new agenda,” she said. “The awakening is happening.”
Waterloo Regional Police are investigating the vandalism and are appealing to witnesses or anyone with information to call police at 519-570-9777 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800222-8477.