Trent University unveils installations to highlight treaty land, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Global News
The university says both installations will help educate the community that Trent sits on land featuring Williams Treaty signatories.
As part of the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Thursday, Trent University unveiled new installations at its campuses in Peterborough and Durham Region to pay tribute to the importance of the original treaties pertaining to the land upon which its two campuses are built and honour the original signatories of the Michi Saagiig Anishnaabeg.
Outside the Bata Library at the Peterborough campus, officials unveiled three limestone boulders bearing the symbols of the dodem (clan totems) carvings of the Treaty 20 Michi Saagiig signatories as well as a statement identifying the Symons Campus lands as being situated on Michi Saagiig traditional territory.
At the Trent University Durham GTA campus in Oshawa, a new Treaty Wall was installed in the front atrium of the campus featuring original signatory documents and a pre-Confederation treaty map.
The university says both installations will help educate the community that Trent sits on land featuring Williams Treaty signatories.
“For more than 50 years, Trent has been committed to providing education in Indigenous history, traditions, cultures, and Indigenous knowledges for students and the broader community,” stated Julie Davis, Trent’s vice-president of external relations and development.
“As we honour Truth and Reconciliation Day, recognizing the local treaties and the Michi Saagiig people is foundational.”
Curve Lake First Nation Chief Emily Whetung says the First Nation just north of Peterborough has a “gold-standard” relationship with Trent University, which became the first university in Canada (and only the second in North America) to establish an academic department dedicated to the study of Indigenous Peoples and knowledges.