Name change for Waterloo, Ont., summer camp is an example of reconciliation, Indigenous leaders say

A popular summer camp held at Laurel Creek Conservation Area in Waterloo, Ont., has changed its name in a move local Indigenous leaders say is a good example of reconciliation.

Camp K is run by St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Kitchener. 

It recently changed its name to stop using a word, created to sound Indigenous, that's a play on the phrase "come on, I want to go."

"It's appropriating that language inflection that's Indigenous," said Amy Smoke, who is Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River and a co-founder of Land Back Camp, which operated at Laurel Creek in the summer of 2021.

Bangishimo Johnston, who also co-founded the Land Back Camp, said Camp K was set up a short distance from the Land Back Camp site and they could hear the campers sing O Canada each morning.

"As an Indigenous community, you could tell how uncomfortable we were in this space that we created, this decolonial space for our campers," Johnston told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

On July 1, which was celebrated by Camp K as Canada Day, Smoke said some of the people at Land Back Camp went to talk to the people running the summer camp to explain it was "really offensive and not a great time right now to be celebrating Canada," given the detection of human remains at sites of former residential school sites.

"That led them to take our concerns back to their new reverend," Smoke said.

Smoke and Johnston said Rev. Marty Molengraaf then visited their site, brought tobacco and sat with them in ceremony. They say he listened to them. Smoke and Johnston offered to speak to the church's camp committee, but Molengraaf said that wasn't necessary.

"He was like, 'No, it's wrong. I'm going to tell them why. We're going to apologize and we're going to change the name,'" Johnston said.

"For me, that's what reconciliation looks like," Johnston said. "That is allyship. That is standing up for us."

Molengraaf told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo the decision was a "no-brainer."

Jackee Arlein-Roth, convener of the Camp K committee, also advocated for the name change. She said it was clear that if they followed the camp's values of inclusion, care for each other and care for the environment, then change was necessary.

"When [Camp K] originally was started up, their perspective on it was the name was just a simple play on words, supposed to be fun," she said. "At that time, it was probably the wrong name and I think history would tell us it was."