LeBreton perfect for Indigenous centre
Self-representation key to centre's success, John Moses and Robert Hage say.
In April, the National Capital Commission announced a “milestone”: the long-awaited LeBreton Flats Master Concept Plan. It detailed the Flats' “four unique districts,” but provided only a “strategy” for recognizing the area's “deep history, including the Indigenous presence and the industrial heritage of the area” (as if the two were equal).
The NCC's initial plans for LeBreton, centred on a new hockey arena for the Senators, collapsed with rancorous lawsuits among its private-sector proponents. Unlike its first attempt, there is no centrepiece in the new NCC proposals that would draw Canadian and foreign visitors to the area, an area the commission calls a “Capital destination that represents the cultural richness of Canada in all its diversity.” It stands to reason, however, that since LeBreton Flats sits on unceded Algonquin land, where Indigenous people have lived for up to 9,000 years, the heart of this “capital destination” must be linked to Canada's Indigenous peoples.
The NCC has recognized the need to “honour the past.” Public consultations urged the NCC to do so “by incorporating Indigenous language, art, music and history into site amenities and building design and by creating a space for Indigenous peoples to use on the site itself.” The Master Concept Plan suggests such things as Indigenous place names — last week, it was announced that the future super library on the Flats will be called Ādisōke, meaning “storytelling” — and interpretive infrastructure, identifying and preserving heritage resources, integrating archeological discoveries into public spaces, and maintaining a “meaningful and ongoing relationship” with the Algonquin Nation.
In 2016, each of us wrote separate letters to the Ottawa Citizen providing ideas on how the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats could fill the void in our capital in recognizing the presence and contribution Indigenous peoples have made and continue to make not only to the lands around Ottawa but across Canada. Robert's letter reflected a recent visit to Washington, D.C., where he toured the National Museum of the American Indian, located in the city's centre. The museum shares the curving surfaces and golden stone of the Canadian Museum of History, not surprisingly since both were designed by Canada's well-known Indigenous architect, Douglas Cardinal. Sadly, the similarity ends there.
Washington's museum was built following the requirements of a 1989 act of Congress “as a living memorial to Native Americans and their traditions.” It is not a place of static exhibits, but a museum run by native people “steadfastly committed to bringing a native voice” through its exhibitions, presentations and publications, in print or on the internet. Its holdings represent virtually all tribes in the United States and, according to the museum, “most of those in Canada.” Canada had nothing comparable.
Robert saw LeBreton Flats as offering an ideal site for Canada's National Museum of Indigenous Peoples. At the same time, the Canadian History Museum was undergoing a major makeover and opening a new First Nations Gallery drawing on the museum's three million native artifacts.
The museum made a good case that there was no need for duplication.
John's letter had a related but different perspective on LeBreton Flats. It was based on his own experience as a member of the Mohawk Nation and his late father Russ's role in the development, construction and presentation of the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Montreal's Expo 67. Russ Moses was a member of the Delaware band, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
John envisaged a National Indigenous Centre at LeBreton Flats specifically modelled on the Indians of Canada Pavilion, now recognized as a watershed in Indigenous self-representation before both Canadian and global audiences. While the centre would be hosted by the Algonquin First Nation, its scope would be nationwide. It would begin with the same question put to First Nations, Métis and Inuit across the entire country at the inception of the Indians of Canada Pavilion: “What do you want to tell the people of Canada and the world?”
This centre would be very different from the Canadian History Museum's First Peoples Gallery. First of all, it would be designed and run by Indigenous people, in the same way the U.S. National Museum of the American Indian is run. The story the centre tells, and will continue to tell, will be that told by its Indigenous designers and managers. It is unreasonable to expect that the Museum of History can manage its collection of more than three million native artifacts on its own. Close collaboration between it and the new centre is essential so that the museum's native ethnographic and archeological collections can be presented and interpreted to the public by Indigenous experts.
When the NCC announced the completion of the LeBreton Flats Master Concept Plan in April, it also announced the three architectural/construction companies that will be invited to develop detailed proposals for a mixeduse development on LeBreton's so-called Library Parcel. The winning applicant is expected to be announced this January. At the same time, it announced “an Algonquin Nation Partnership Strategy will be added to the Master Concept Plan, in consultation and collaboration with Algonquin partners.”
The question is: Can anything be started until the NCC has a clear concept of LeBreton Flats' “Indigenous heart?” The Algonquin Nation should be the host for a new National Indigenous Centre involving Indigenous people from across Canada. The time to start is now.
John Moses is a member of the Delaware and Upper Mohawk bands, Six Nations of the Grand River. Robert Hage is a Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
The Algonquin Nation should be the host for a new National Indigenous Centre.