Elder calls exhibit ‘good gesture’
Display at Bata Library part of Trent’s reconciliation efforts
Trent University has taken another step toward reconciliation with Indigenous people.
A display, featuring copies of Treaty 20 and Williams Treaty, has been added to the university’s newly renovated Bata Library.
The exhibit, “The Land on Which Trent Sits,” is predominately placed on a wall inside the main doors of the library on the right-hand side.
Curve Lake First Nation elder Gidigaa Migizi, whose English name is Doug Williams, was at the unveiling to say a few words.
Migizi is a professor in Trent’s Indigenous studies PhD program and was one of the university’s first graduates from the Indian-Eskimo studies program (now Indigenous studies) in 1972.
He said the display is an important step toward reconciliation and was long overdue.
“I feel that Trent is trying to make amends here as best they can,” Migizi said.
Despite Trent being ahead of the curve by launching the first Canadian post-secondary to establish an Indigenous studies department, he said the university’s relationship with local First Nations has been weak.
“They always talk about having a good relationship with Curve Lake but it’s a more superficial, peripheral type of relationship,” Migizi said of
Trent.
Trent president Leo Groarke said that when post-secondary schools started incorporating Indigenous studies, it was a “pan-Canadian” approach, so institutions were not sensitive to local First Nations. But times have changes since then, he added.
“Now we’re in a time, and I think it’s a good step forward, where institutions are taking local First Nations very seriously,” Groarke said.
When Trent opened 50 years ago, First Nations were thought of as one group, he said.
Trent felt it was important to rectify that, and note that its connections are specifically connections to Curve Lake and
Hiawatha First Nations and the other Mississauga Anishinaabe nations.
“We have moved into a new phase in the understanding of Indigenous studies where our understanding is, we need to have a focus on local Indigenous First Nations,” Groarke said.
Migizi said he thought the display was a “good gesture” because it acknowledges Trent’s shortcomings.
“It’s needed to be specific more toward Curve Lake and Michi Saagiig people, that they’ve omitted, to openly acknowledge as being the Indigenous people of this land of which Trent is built,” the elder said.
With new-found space available after renovations to Bata Library, Groarke said a blank slate was created to properly showcase “The Land on Which Trent Sits.”
Trent has had the treaties on hand for quite some time and it was time to do something public to recognize its connection to the Mississauga Anishinaabe, he said.
During his speech, Migizi stated the installation should have been up a long time ago, but he’s pleased to see advancement.
“This is a good thing, that it’s open, it’s out there and nobody else has influence on it,” Migizi said.