National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebrated Throughout the Peterborough Community

To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day on Wednesday, several activities are being held throughout the community, announced by The City of Peterborough.

File Photo.

“National Indigenous Peoples Day is cause for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures, and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples,” said Mayor Jeff Leal. “It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation commission and to renew our commitment to fulfill them."

The following are events from City of Peterborough facilities: 

Peterborough Public Library 

National Indigenous Peoples Day: 

• Summer Solstice Story Time, National Indigenous Peoples Day at Millennium Park, 130 King St., Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. 

• 10 Indigenous Titles You Should Read this Month is featured at the Seniors Showcase, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre, 775 Brealey Dr. 

Other upcoming events marking National Indigenous History Month: 

• Tween Book Club: Barren Grounds by David Robertson, June 22, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

• Friday Film & Discussion: Voices Across the Water, June 23, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

• Adult Book Club: A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt, June 27, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

• Visit the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Legacy Space, open during library hours 

Peterborough Museum and Archives

• Interpretive tours between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. of the exhibition ‘To Honour and Respect: Gifts from the Michi Saagiig Women to the Prince of Wales’ exhibit 

• Quilling workshops will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. This registered program is full, but visitors are encouraged to drop in to see the work being completed.  

• Art responses activities for all ages. 

The exhibition will continue at the Museum until mid-November. 

The Nogojiwanong Project 

The City’s Public Art Program invites you to visit the Nogojiwanong Project. Located at the south end of Millennium Park, this project was a collaboration undertaken in the spirit of kinship between local First Nations, Indigenous peoples, and the City of Peterborough in recognition of the 200th anniversary of Rice Lake Treaty No. 20. Through the collaboration, this gathering space was created to encourage learning and reflection with a series of interpretive panels highlighting the evolution of local treaties and inherent rights of Indigenous peoples. The “Gathering” provides the focal point for the space. 

Michael Belmore’s, entitled “Gathering,” complements the panels and anchors the space. It consists of a grouping of glacial erratic boulders, carved, lined with copper, and fitted so that they sit slightly apart and seemingly radiate heat. The stones are embellished with the Treaty 20 Clan Totems or Dodems as they are called in Anishinaabemowin. 

Nogojiwanong is an Anishinaabe word meaning “place at the foot of the rapids” and the name given to the gathering place, at the bottom of a turbulent stretch of the Otonabee River, renamed Peterborough by European settlers. 

Millennium Park forms the present-day landfall and eddy along the western shoreline. It is also the site of the trailhead to the Chemong Portage – a six- or seven-mile historic footpath between the Otonabee River and Chemong Lake. 

The Nogojiwanong Project location acknowledges these ancestral lands and the thousands of years the Michi Saagiig navigated this route between their winter camps and traditional fishing grounds at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on Lake Ontario. 

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