Belleville for lunch!

Trip to Belleville: Fall Colours! 
We went to Belleville to have lunch with Nat. She lives in Timmins, in northern Ontario, and I wanted to meet with her during her visit to Belleville, in southern Ontario. All of my friends live elsewhere, it's fun to meet somewhere in the middle. It was a joy to host Yam from Scotland that year, and Susan from Novar, northern Ontario. Dale visited from Huntsville, as well.

We're in the middle of an election... Our local NDP candidate isn't putting out signs, to save the environment. I'm not sure the efficacy of this. We have a re-usable, generic sign at the end of our driveway for the Greens.


This is a drive-by, but one of my favourites! Poor JB, who prefers driving to taking photos (no pressure), this is the only way he can see where we've been...


We went to The Boathouse Restaurant. We were there smack on the nose of noon, and our timing couldn't have been better. We opted to sit outdoors, as those days are nearly done. Well, 'we' isn't true. *I* made the decision!
These clouds moved off.


The servers were great, not particularly fast, but we weren't in a hurry.


Nat helped out another couple! I love her! She's such a good person.


Seafood and pasta. My fave. JB had a spicy jambalaya. He likes spice. We both took some home for dinner the next night. This is how I've lost 6 kg., although I did eat his garlic toast.


The clouds began moving in.


We paid up, and said our goodbyes just as the heavens poured down. We took a little drive around the harbour first. There are some nice condos.  The houses are about $495,000! This is called Harbour Landing.

Originally the site of an Anishinaabe (Mississaugus) village in the 18th century known as Asukhknosk, the future location of the city was settled by United Empire Loyalists, after which it became known as Meyer's Creek after prominent settler and industrialist John Walden Meyers. It was renamed Belleville in honour of Lady Arabella Gore in 1816, after a visit to the settlement by Sir Francis Gore and his wife.

The long ribbons of clouds were lovely.


A nice park, Jane Forrester Park.

It's a great town, with great services.


Smokin' Joe's!


We drove home along highway #2, through Tyendinaga reserve, Mohawks of the bay of Quinte. It was interesting! Pot shops dotted the highway. It's legal in Canada. Of course, Tyendinaga is a First Nation, with their own government.

BOOK REVIEW: Talking Back to the the Indian Act

The significance of land:
"It is in land that culture, economics,
and identity coalesce into a complex whole." 

Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories

It's a bit of a frustrating read, but an important one. I have prided myself on tackling contentious issues, a difficult read or not, I want to learn more. In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, I have endeavoured to read up on the past. My only criticism is the small font chosen for the paperback.

 I understand that the target audience is a younger, university-aged crowd. I am thinking, however, that it would work for those Truth and Reconciliation Committees, which exists in many communities. Here in Lanark County it is called: Lanark County Neighbours for Truth & Reconciliation. People engage in education, ceremony, understanding, and learning about the past, and relationships between Indigenous and White Settler communities.

It is important, following the Truth and Reconciliation Act, to bear witness to the misogyny, the gender bias, and the stereotypical attitudes of those who wrote the Indian Act, and created abusive Residential Schools. First Nations have spent much time, energy, and willpower, fighting back peacefully, and in the courts.

The Indian Act (1876) is a disturbing means by which the Britain Crown rounded up First Nations, treated them like children, and banished them to reserves, where they were treated, at best, as wards or children of the state, or slaves, to endure violence, indignities, and abuse. This text provides specific letters and documents which demonstrate this attitude. Eventually, we understand, the Crown went from recognizing First Nations as an equal nation, to trying to eradicate and eliminate Indigenous Peoples.

The book is an excellent tool for a professor, charged with facilitating student learning, critical thinking and reflection. Certainly, an aforementioned committee, or a book club could use this as a reference. It contains the text of salient acts and letters, maps, footnotes within each chapter, lists of questions to stimulate thinking, a chronological list of Indian Act timelines, and an index. I think I would have appreciated a list of acronyms, as well.

Some salient points

5 C's of Historical Thinking
Five concepts that are the foundation of historical thinking: change over time, context, causality, contingency, and complexity.

4 Rs of Indigenous Methodologies
Touchstones of Indigenous methodologies–relationship, responsibility, respect, and reciprocity.

My conclusion, and that of many scholars, is that the Indian Act of 1876 was meant to remove Indigenous status of First Nation citizens, in which community can be preserved, to steadfastly eradicating all culture, traditions and values. The British government, and its white, male representatives, moved from an attitude of respect and protecting Indigenous Peoples from white settlers, to attempting to integrate them into white society, to using every means possible to reduce First Nations culture and society to rubble.

Speech made by Chief Deskaheh, March 10th, 1925

As Ottawa purportedly attempted an Indian Advancement strategy, and Washington managed to assimilate his people, the Chief made a powerful speech, in which he says rather than these, it is tyranny. Indeed, he stated,

"We are tired of calling on the governments of pale-faced peoples in America and Europe. We have tried that and found it was no use. They deal only in fine words...We want justice from now on. After all that has happened to us, that is not much for us to ask. You got half of your territory here by warfare upon red-men, usually unprovoked, and you got about a quarter of it by bribing their chiefs, and not over a quarter of it did you get openly and fairly." (p. 74-79)

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The 1876 Indian Act
2. Governance
3. Enfranchisement
4. Gender Equity
5. Land

Documents show deep-seated bias by police during operations against Mohawks of Tyendinaga

APTN News
He worked with Amnesty International to examine the OPP actions. ... Hay is a former RCMP officer and former chief of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police. ... They were taken on April 25, 2008 showing OPP officers with assault rifles ... other documents, that the OPP viewed the Mohawks as violent criminals...

Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation