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The city’s popular new sound and light show, Mìwàte, has breathed new life into an old controversy about the fate of Chaudière Falls and two nearby islands slated for development.
Mìwàte — it means “dazzle with light” in Anishnaabe — has drawn overflow crowds during its first week while revealing to a new generation of Canadians the dramatic vista that lies at the heart of their capital.
The area is considered sacred by the Algonquin people, who used the islands for centuries to convene tribal meetings and to perform tobacco ceremonies — a ritual first described in 1613 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
Free The Falls, a local group formed to see the Chaudière Falls and the nearby islands restored to their natural state, said Mìwàte has turned a much-needed spotlight on the issue.
Sketch of a dramatic rescue of a raft hung up on the Chaudière Falls in 1855: ‘A whole crib, with several men on it, was carried to the edge of the Falls,’ wrote the artist, William S. Hunter, Jr.
Albert Dumont, an Algonquin elder, writer and healer, said he objected to the whole idea of Mìwàte, which he believed offended the spirituality of the site. While still opposed, he recognizes the month-long event as an opportunity to build support for the Free the Falls movement.
The group wants the hydro ring dam that controls water flow over the falls to be removed, and the islands reserved for a central park, an indigenous healing and peace centre as envisioned by celebrated Algonquin leader William Commanda.
“It definitely presents an opportunity for us to share our message,” Dumont said. “After it (Mìwàte) began at Chaudière Falls, it dawned on me that people will go down there and see the magnificence, the beauty, the spirituality of that place, and then they’ll ask themselves: ‘Why should we turn this place over to a developer?’
“If it’s a park or green space, then all people can benefit from it.”
He asked Canadians to sign an online petition that would force the federal government to respond to the group’s concerns.
Gilbert Whiteduck, the former chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, said turning the falls and islands over to the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation would be meaningful act of reconciliation.
A View of the Mill and Tavern of Philemon Wright at the Chaudière Falls, Hull on the Ottawa River, Lower Canada.
“There is much work to be done and it will take the voices of citizens of Ottawa and Gatineau as well as other Canadians for such an act of reconciliation to take place,” he wrote in an email. “I am convinced that it is possible but it will require that people open up their spirits, open up their minds to what should be, what can be.”
Not all members of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation, however, oppose plans by the Windmill Development Group and Dream Unlimited to build a $1.2-billion project, known as Zibi, on Chaudière and Albert Islands.
The planned billion development is to include condominiums, hotels, retail space and parks, all built in consultation with the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagan First Nation in the Ottawa Valley. The islands fall within the community’s land claim — the largest in Ontario — and its leaders consider the Zibi development an appropriate way to reclaim an area lost to industrialization.
Site plan of Zibi by Windmill Development.
Jeff Westeinde, chairman of the Windmill Development Group, said it’s important to note that much of the land being developed did not exist two centuries ago.
“Most of the land we’re developing, they’re infilled, contaminated sites that were created by the industrialists,” he said. “There’s nowhere on our property where you can actually see the falls.”
Returning the Chaudière Falls to their former glory is the most frequently suggested idea.
Hydro Ottawa owns the land nearest the falls that’s hosting Mìwàte.
Westeinde said there’s an ongoing debate among Indigenous groups as to whether all of the islands are sacred or just parts of them.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work with the (Indigenous) communities we’re engaged with to understand what they want to see on theses properties — and we’ve designed the community accordingly,” he said.
Carleton University associate journalism professor Randy Boswell, who has written extensively about Ottawa’s industrial and archaeological past, said he was surprised by the city’s decision to put Chaudière Falls in the spotlight during Ottawa 2017.
“It’s hard to imagine a place in Ottawa-Gatineau more fraught than the falls,” he said. “It’s an unambiguously sacred space for the region’s Algonquin people, and it straddles the boundary between between Ottawa and Gatineau so it’s jurisdictionally complex.”
Boswell’s own research has established that the area, once the epicentre of the city’s lumber industry, also contributed to the city’s first pollution crisis: thick rafts of sawdust that choked the river.
“At the very least, every future use of the falls and the surrounding area should reflect — in meaningful and lasting ways — the ongoing importance of the site to Indigenous nations,” he said, “and its significance in the industrial and environmental history of Ottawa-Gatineau.”
Graphic illustrations for the Chaudière Falls expansion
Aerial view of Chaudière Falls area.
Hydro Ottawa has been awarded a 40-year contract to expand its Chaudière Falls facility by constructing a new, 29-megawatt facility — enough energy to power 20,000 homes for a year.
Mìwàte – Illumination of Chaudière Falls will feature ambient lighting, a rich soundscape and a powerful tribute to Indigenous people as part of the Ottawa 2017 celebrations.
查看原文...
Mìwàte — it means “dazzle with light” in Anishnaabe — has drawn overflow crowds during its first week while revealing to a new generation of Canadians the dramatic vista that lies at the heart of their capital.
The area is considered sacred by the Algonquin people, who used the islands for centuries to convene tribal meetings and to perform tobacco ceremonies — a ritual first described in 1613 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
Free The Falls, a local group formed to see the Chaudière Falls and the nearby islands restored to their natural state, said Mìwàte has turned a much-needed spotlight on the issue.
Sketch of a dramatic rescue of a raft hung up on the Chaudière Falls in 1855: ‘A whole crib, with several men on it, was carried to the edge of the Falls,’ wrote the artist, William S. Hunter, Jr.
Albert Dumont, an Algonquin elder, writer and healer, said he objected to the whole idea of Mìwàte, which he believed offended the spirituality of the site. While still opposed, he recognizes the month-long event as an opportunity to build support for the Free the Falls movement.
The group wants the hydro ring dam that controls water flow over the falls to be removed, and the islands reserved for a central park, an indigenous healing and peace centre as envisioned by celebrated Algonquin leader William Commanda.
“It definitely presents an opportunity for us to share our message,” Dumont said. “After it (Mìwàte) began at Chaudière Falls, it dawned on me that people will go down there and see the magnificence, the beauty, the spirituality of that place, and then they’ll ask themselves: ‘Why should we turn this place over to a developer?’
“If it’s a park or green space, then all people can benefit from it.”
He asked Canadians to sign an online petition that would force the federal government to respond to the group’s concerns.
Gilbert Whiteduck, the former chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, said turning the falls and islands over to the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation would be meaningful act of reconciliation.
A View of the Mill and Tavern of Philemon Wright at the Chaudière Falls, Hull on the Ottawa River, Lower Canada.
“There is much work to be done and it will take the voices of citizens of Ottawa and Gatineau as well as other Canadians for such an act of reconciliation to take place,” he wrote in an email. “I am convinced that it is possible but it will require that people open up their spirits, open up their minds to what should be, what can be.”
Not all members of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation, however, oppose plans by the Windmill Development Group and Dream Unlimited to build a $1.2-billion project, known as Zibi, on Chaudière and Albert Islands.
The planned billion development is to include condominiums, hotels, retail space and parks, all built in consultation with the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagan First Nation in the Ottawa Valley. The islands fall within the community’s land claim — the largest in Ontario — and its leaders consider the Zibi development an appropriate way to reclaim an area lost to industrialization.
Site plan of Zibi by Windmill Development.
Jeff Westeinde, chairman of the Windmill Development Group, said it’s important to note that much of the land being developed did not exist two centuries ago.
“Most of the land we’re developing, they’re infilled, contaminated sites that were created by the industrialists,” he said. “There’s nowhere on our property where you can actually see the falls.”
Returning the Chaudière Falls to their former glory is the most frequently suggested idea.
Hydro Ottawa owns the land nearest the falls that’s hosting Mìwàte.
Westeinde said there’s an ongoing debate among Indigenous groups as to whether all of the islands are sacred or just parts of them.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work with the (Indigenous) communities we’re engaged with to understand what they want to see on theses properties — and we’ve designed the community accordingly,” he said.
Carleton University associate journalism professor Randy Boswell, who has written extensively about Ottawa’s industrial and archaeological past, said he was surprised by the city’s decision to put Chaudière Falls in the spotlight during Ottawa 2017.
“It’s hard to imagine a place in Ottawa-Gatineau more fraught than the falls,” he said. “It’s an unambiguously sacred space for the region’s Algonquin people, and it straddles the boundary between between Ottawa and Gatineau so it’s jurisdictionally complex.”
Boswell’s own research has established that the area, once the epicentre of the city’s lumber industry, also contributed to the city’s first pollution crisis: thick rafts of sawdust that choked the river.
“At the very least, every future use of the falls and the surrounding area should reflect — in meaningful and lasting ways — the ongoing importance of the site to Indigenous nations,” he said, “and its significance in the industrial and environmental history of Ottawa-Gatineau.”
Graphic illustrations for the Chaudière Falls expansion
Aerial view of Chaudière Falls area.
Hydro Ottawa has been awarded a 40-year contract to expand its Chaudière Falls facility by constructing a new, 29-megawatt facility — enough energy to power 20,000 homes for a year.
Mìwàte – Illumination of Chaudière Falls will feature ambient lighting, a rich soundscape and a powerful tribute to Indigenous people as part of the Ottawa 2017 celebrations.
查看原文...
