Landback Camp reacts to new report on Queen Victoria statue

Following the Victoria Day long weekend, Queen Victoria remains a topic of discussion as a new report is set to be presented to committee on June 8 and Kitchener city council on June 20.

According to a city spokesperson, along with the report, citizens will be given the opportunity to provide feedback on Queen Victoria's statue in Victoria Park in the coming months. 

This all comes after another incident of vandalism to the statue involving red paint on May 5. 

While that paint has since been be removed, local Indigenous groups, such as Landback Camp K-W are reacting to the painting and this new report. 

“I think it's clear some folks in the community are sending a message, repeatedly, about colonial history and the brutal reign of Queen Victoria,” said Amy Smoke, a member of the Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan from the Six Nations of the Grand River and co-founder of Landback Camp K-W. 

“I personally don't think that you can compare the vandalism of this horrific statue to the genocide of Indigenous people, the comparison is moot; it's a statue,” added Smoke. 

Back in October of last year, two plaques were added to the statue “acknowledging the cultural harm and erasure inflicted on Indigenous peoples as a direct result of colonialism and that the presence of the statue may contribute to that ongoing harm.” 

Smoke said this is simply performative as that statue remains, and therefore, doesn't address the root of the harm the city says it acknowledges. 

Smoke said so far, to their knowledge, no consultation has happened between the City of Kitchener and Landback Camp, or other local Indigenous groups. 

“I'm concerned that the city keeps putting out statements that they're working in consultation with Indigenous communities. I don't know anybody that they're working with,” said Smoke. 

Smoke hopes Kitchener doesn't face the same situation as Baden and Wilmot Township did.

“They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on community input consultations just to find out we didn't want it anyways.” 

Smoke said their ultimate hope is the statue is removed and replaced with a garden, sacred fire space, or something that brings the community together, rather than causing harm.