Kitchener council votes to look into Indigenous artwork for Victoria Park

A proposed Indigenous artwork installation has gotten the green light from Kitchener City Council.

Staff came to council on Monday with the recommendation to look into creating the artwork “that honours local Indigenous history, promotes an understanding of the impact of colonization, and can work to bring the community together in the spirit of reconciliation.”

It comes two years after the city started a public consultation process to ask what the future of the Queen Victoria statue should be. The public engagement was shortly concluded after it started. The staff report to council did not outline what should be done with the statue.

Joel Lundy, one of the delegates at Monday’s meeting, said he was a teacher in the 1970s at a reserve near London, Ont. and was pleased to see this idea come to council.

“My hope is that the proposed installation 100 years from now will not be under discussion for removal because it gave a one-sided version of a certain chapter in history,” said Lundy.

Meanwhile, other delegates, such as Anne Marie Beals, echoed calls for the statue of Queen Victoria to be removed.

“Under her rule, colonial policies and practices directly contributed to the systemic displacement, dispossession, death and attempted erasure of Indigenous peoples,” said Beals.

Bangishimo, the co-director of the Willow River Centre, spoke shortly after and said actions like an art installation and even land acknowledgements are “meaningless unless there is action behind them.”

“The statue is a symbol of colonial violence,” said Bangishimo. “It is a reminder of the genocide that Indigenous peoples have continued to face… You cannot claim to care about reconciliation while continuing to uphold this symbol of oppression in Willow River Park.”

The park is the name used by those who oppose the name Victoria Park.

The vote now refers the installation to the Arts and Creative Industries Action Plan, which is set to be presented to council late next year.