{"id":14850,"date":"2024-09-30T12:35:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T18:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/?post_type=news&p=14850"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:38:18","slug":"historic-wampum-belt-ceremony-signifies-bond-between-sault-garden-river-2","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/news\/historic-wampum-belt-ceremony-signifies-bond-between-sault-garden-river-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic wampum belt ceremony signifies bond between Sault, Garden River"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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City advances economic partnership with Garden River<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>

Author:<\/strong> James Hopkin<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Source:<\/strong> SOO Today<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Date<\/strong>: September 30, 2024<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>

‘Today was the first step in the journey’: Gift exchange between City of Sault Ste. Marie and Garden River highlights ongoing relationship building between two neighbours<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Garden River First Nation and the City of Sault Ste. Marie are forging ahead with a relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation \u2014 and now, that relationship has been solidified and formally acknowledged in the form of a wampum belt.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A ceremony was held inside of a teaching lodge in the First Nation Monday as part of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day set aside to\u00a0honour\u00a0survivors of the residential school system, those who never made it home, as well as their families and communities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker was presented with a two-row wampum belt during the ceremony, which was attended by staff and council members from each of the\u00a0neighbouring\u00a0communities, in addition to\u00a0a number of\u00a0survivors who attended\u00a0Shingwauk\u00a0and Spanish residential schools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThere was an invisible line between Garden River and Sault Ste. Marie for so long \u2014 hundreds of years \u2014 and this day, today, has caused that invisible line to be broken down, and to have a feeling of wellness,\u201d Garden River First Nation Chief Karen Bell told\u00a0SooToday\u00a0following the ceremony.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Shoemaker called Monday\u2019s ceremony a \u201ccritical building block\u201d in the relationship between the City of Sault Ste. Marie and Garden River First Nation, which was initially fostered by former mayor Christian Provenzano and former chief Andy Rickard during their time serving as leaders of their respective communities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Earlier this year, city council voted to move ahead with an\u00a0<\/span>economic collaboration with Garden River<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as part of the First Nation \u2013 Municipal Community Economic Development Initiative (CEDI), a partnership between the two communities from November 2022 until January 2025.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In September, the First Nation announced that it completed its\u00a0<\/span>Cultural Competency Project<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in order to\u00a0strengthen collaborative efforts and understanding with local partners in Sault Ste. Marie through set of cultural workshops that were delivered for both Garden River First Nation and Sault Ste. Marie staff and leadership. The project was made possible through a Community Support, Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Initiative funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe have to mutually prosper if we\u2019re going to walk down this path of reconciliation together, if\u00a0we\u2019re going to walk down the path of prosperity together \u2014 and today was the first step in the journey,\u201d Shoemaker said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Although the overall tone of Monday\u2019s ceremony was celebratory, it also provided a platform for residential school survivors like Indigenous role model and advocate Barbara Nolan to share their own deeply personal stories about the residential school system in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. Nolan told attendees that she was just five years old when she and her seven-year-old sister first entered residential school in Spanish, Ont. as children that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0know a single word of English at the time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI remember walking in there \u2014 but then we turned, and our parents were gone. And we started to cry,\u201d said an emotional Nolan. \u201cWe were crying, and right away those two nuns that had greeted us there grabbed us \u2014 not just took us\u00a0gently, but\u00a0grabbed us \u2014 and they started strapping us with a big, long strap on our tiny little hands.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A gift exchange between the City of Sault Ste. Marie and Garden River First\u00a0Nation\u00a0and a feast held inside the Garden River Community Centre capped off the ceremony.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe built relationships with this city that never would have taken place if we did not have this \u2014 two sets of staff making that effort known and moving this along,\u201d said Bell. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for this day, and how fitting for it to be on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A National Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for former Residential School students. Emotional and crisis referral services are available by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The Hope for Wellness Line is available to all Indigenous peoples and provides immediate, toll-free telephone and on-line support and crisis intervention 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is available in English, French and, upon request, Cree,\u00a0Ojibway\u00a0and Inuktitut. Trained counsellors are available by phone at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat on their website.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Find the full article\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City advances economic partnership with Garden River\u00a0 Author: James Hopkin Source: SOO Today Date: September 30, 2024 ‘Today was the first step in the journey’: Gift exchange between City of Sault Ste. Marie and Garden River highlights ongoing relationship building between two neighbours\u00a0 Garden River First Nation and the City of Sault Ste. Marie are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14850","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phase-iii"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14854,"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14850\/revisions\/14854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cedipartnerships.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}