As another Canada Day draws near, my mind goes to the many times I have enjoyed parades, fireworks or other celebrations on this day. Since moving to the Saugeen Peninsula full-time, the approach to this day of celebration comes with mixed feelings for me.
Last November, the church communities I work with were invited to attend an afternoon of learning and hospitality at Neyaashiinigmiing, Cedar Tea and Story Telling. It was a wet drizzly day, marginally above freezing, and the hot cups of Cedar Tea sweetened with maple syrup were both hand and belly warmers as we visited together and listened to stories.
One of the things I learnt that day was that this Saugeen Peninsula, in traditional, pre-Settler times, was not so much an inhabited place, but was more a place where the local First Nations people came for ceremony and healing. The Peninsula was medicinal, or as we would say in “church-talk” sacramental. Sacred, and set apart to celebrate the sacred connection with, and to, Creation, which is capable of bringing us so much healing.
My work drives up and down the Peninsula then took on a different lens. As I drove past cleared farm land, homesteads, cottages, mansions or mining operations, I imagined:
How would I feel if the churches I serve were leveled for these purposes?
How would I feel if the altars and baptismal fonts of our sacred Christian buildings were smashed into landscaping material? Reformatted from being Grandfathers and Grandmothers of our faith tradition to blocks of stone to be used in construction or for decoration?
The term that comes to mind in these scenarios is “sacrilege”. The repurposing, especially of unceded land, for mining and other operations which have significantly changed the character of the land itself decries the ancient purposes for which this land was known: sacred, healing medicine.
As an Indigenous Sinhalese Sri Lankan, my reactions are resonant with my experiences as a child, going to see Sigiriya Lion Rock with my family. This rock outcropping, nearly 200 meters high, is the site of an ancient palace, dating to the reign of King Kasyapa (477-495 AD), who chose this site as a new capital. He decorated the walls with frescoes, and built an impressive palace right on top of the rock column, accessible only through the mouth of an enormous carved lion.
This construction, like the Indigenous practice of Buddhism represented in many of the frescoes, long pre-dated colonial settlement and Christian influence, and had been well cared for over so many centuries. When we visited, some of those frescoes had been vandalized. I remember well the feeling of violation and sacrilege it brought up in me. I wonder, is this how the Indigenous people of this Saugeen territory experience our settlement here?
As a settler in Canada, I celebrate Canada Day with thankfulness for the safety and many good things, blessings really, which have drawn me to this land. I also celebrate with a deep mindfulness towards not furthering the sacrilege on this medicinal place. May the silence and calm of starlight not be marred by fireworks and firecrackers, which scare not only the indigenous creatures, but also my poor hound, Parker.
May our celebrations be respectful of the traditional ways in which this Peninsula was honoured.
Pastor Janaki Bandara
