The Road to Your Name Podcast

Road To Your Name
Season 3, Episode 8: The Moccasin Identifier with Carolyn King
Introduction:
(Music plays, the song, Yo ha hee yoh (It’s a Good Road) from Kaha:wi, Santee Smith). All Rights Reserved.
Lisa: Shé:kon, Sewakwé:kon (Greetings Everyone). Welcome to our Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast focusing on Haudenosaunee cultural topics, recorded on Haudenosaunee Territory. Our podcasts are produced by Aboriginal Legal Services with the technical assistance of Humble Man Recording. My name is Lisa VanEvery from the Mohawk Nation and the wolf clan. I’m the coordinator of the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) program and the host of this podcast.
(Music continues)
Welcome to the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast series. If you would like to learn more about our organization, Aboriginal Legal Services, and the programs and services we provide, please visit us at our website, www.aboriginallegal.ca and if you feel inclined and would like to make a donation, you can click on the word, DONATE, located at the top of the homepage of our newly updated website. You can also visit us on facebook at Aboriginal Legal Services, Toronto, Canada.
This is the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast series.
(Music continues and fades)
Lisa: [00:00:00] Welcome everyone to today's podcast. And we have a very special guest today. In person actually coming to speak with us and it's Carolyn King from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation are our neighbors at Six Nations of the Grand River. We're really close neighbors And so, I've known Carolyn for several years. (02:19:00)
I don't even know how many years but a lot of years And Carolyn is a former Elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and she was actually the first woman elected chief of her community from 1997 to 1999. Carolyn received the Queen Elizabeth, the second Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 and the Order of Canada in 2020.
What we're here to talk about today though is Carolyn is the Moccasin Identifier Project founder. [00:01:00] Is that right? founder? Is that the right word?
Carolyn King: Creator.
Lisa: Creator of the moccasin identifier project, which began in 2011. So welcome Carolyn. It's so great that you're actually here with us in person. Oh, that's great.
Carolyn King: Great to see you, Lisa. And that yeah, so it's great to be here and thank you for doing this information about the moccasin identifier.
Lisa: So let's get right into it and tell us how this project began.
Carolyn King: Okay. That the moccasin identifier evolved.
We actually when I started at, as an employee at the Mississaugas of the Credit re come back to be an employee if for the duty to consult and accommodate initiatives and that I they were already doing a research project using technology and I call it the digital dot and where they were researching our significant [00:02:00] sites and in our treaty lands and then the idea was that they would create a dot on the, when you're driving down, you're driving with your driving map, zoom or rays, whatever ways, whatever program you use to for distance and driving that there would be a point of interest, you might say, and those are just dots on the map.
And you can go to them or you can click on them and see what it is. And the idea was that we would be one of them. And not just for us, but for Indigenous people, right? So for our, our that's what we were doing that was already underway. And so I was presenting at a one of our annual conferences, the historical conference, which started in 2010 or nine.
I think it was, because it's already had experienced 10 years and that they I presented as part of the mapping project. And it was called dream catcher.
Carolyn King: That’s what the map thing was called. We were [00:03:00] partnered with the University of Waterloo and they wanted to we were presenting what goes on behind the dot is all the research.
What makes that site significant? And as it turns out, the then we were going to the historical gathering to talk about the Dreamcatcher mapping project. And so I, we were presenting the information about Catherine Sutton.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: that she was a Mississauga woman, and she married out, and she married to a non-Native Bon, I'm gonna, we call her Nonny for short, she's got a long name, Nahnebahwequay, and that her English name is Catherine Sutton.
And she, you know, back then she'd taken off the band list, and she's no longer considered Native, and lost all of her rights as a Indigenous woman. And so her and her husband, they were going to build and buy land and build up in Collingwood area [00:04:00] on the west side of Collingwood. And that, so they were up there and, so when she went to, they went to go buy the land and her, then she was a very, what do you call it? Progressive woman.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And that she..she was told that because she was Native, she could not own land.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: Yet, you know…the system had just taken her off and taken away all her rights. So, she got stressed out about that and she wrote letters, and she got on a ship, 8 months pregnant, and went to visit Queen Victoria.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Carolyn King: And got a, you know..a face to face meeting with her. And that She asked for the rights to own land and all of that. She didn't get it, but the fact that she took those steps to advocate for Indigenous women and the First Nation set her on a path of writing letters and advocating and she was a rights person.
She authored books and papers. So we [00:05:00] were presenting about her. Why she was significant, that site was significant. And see, I could, I was there with the research team, and I know what was, what I saw, right? So you were with Donald Smith and the archaeologists and a couple other people. And that.. at the time it was just remnant farmland, like an old concrete wall in the corner there and stuff.
Carolyn King: And so, the archaeologists said that, when they dig this all up, and take away all our, I call it our stuff. And that's and it's anybody's stuff. Archaeologists, when they go and do a site, they pick everything up. The pen, the pen cap, broken caps, everything that might be there is picked up, documented and put in a bag and stored.
So anyway, including our stuff. So I, when we were presenting that he said, how will they know that you were ever here? If we take everything away. And, you know what, [00:08:41] I don't know, so that's why we're trying to mark the site, right? So anyway, I got a question from the floor. And said you're talking about all this digital technology and everything.
So what is gonna, what happens if I go there and I don't have a phone? Let alone a smartphone. What am I gonna see? And I said. Nothing. It's all, it's basically all gone. It's been covered up, plowed up. In some cases, paved over. So our significant sites are lost. And that so it was suggested and this is my friend Jane Beecroft, and my historical friends in Toronto were there.
And they said, maybe you should consider a placking program. A permanent marker that the all the public can see it and know. And I said, Okay this was a Friday, last day of our conference, three day conference. And I said, Okay let's chat about it after. And we did. And so then they said if we're going to have [00:09:47] a placking system, you need to have a unique identifier.
Something that is recognizable,
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: A symbol. And and we said, okay, and they said, what rook should that be what could it be? And it was suggested an eagle feather. And I said, no, eagle feather is too important to the Indigenous people. It's sacred. And I said, and in the Anishinaabe, a feather down is one of our warriors down.
And so no, we don't want that to be on the ground. And so they said maybe one of the totems, The deer, the bear, the eagle, all of that. And I said, no, that's the same thing. Those things are too sacred to us. And that if we put it on the ground, and people walk all over it and don't know what it is, I said, it's just going to make us mad again.
So, let's not go there.
Carolyn King: So they said, “Carolyn, you need to come up with something. What will be the symbol then?” If we take this up to they told us, they told me [00:10:51] that they were going to be meeting with the government by next, the next Friday. And that, I, they said, you give us, you come up with a, suggest a symbol, and we'll take it to the government and talk about this project.
And I said, okay. So, Friday, I go back to my office, I don't go into work until Tuesday, and so I wrote on my whiteboard at the old council house at New Credit I wrote on there, what will identify us and connect us to the land?
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: Every day I went in and read that question.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: And I said, just say, what is it? And I said, it shouldn't have taken me three days, but I said, it's our footwear.
Lisa: (laughing) Yeah.
Carolyn King: And that's why I call myself the creator
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: of this idea.
Carolyn King: And then we started to research it. And that's how we, our next step was to connect with the Bata Shoe in Toronto, which has an amazing Indigenous collection.
Lisa: I’ve heard that.
Carolyn King: It is. So [00:11:54] that was other friends, arts friends, they said, “Well, you have to go see that exhibit.” And at that time, it was running a an exhibit called Beauty, Pride, and Identity. And it going back to Sonja Bata, who the museum is named after, it's the largest private museum of its kind in the world.
Lisa: Wow.
Carolyn King: And she puts such an emphasis on the Indigenous collection.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: That I've been fortunate to be I'm honored to be in the vaults.
Two stories down, there are two vaults the same size, and then one half is the Indigenous collection, the other half is the rest of the world.
Lisa: Wow.
Carolyn King: Yeah, and then she does the circumpolar in North America.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: And so those are the moccasins, or footwear designs that are in there. It's like Tibet, Siberia, the Inuit, and then North America. There's really only two Anishinaabe moccasins in there, because they have all of them. And the exhibit was was [00:12:59] amazing. I went there, I think, about six times and just sat there with it.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: Because you can watch videos, you can read the stories, and, Do some interactive things as part of the exhibit. And it stayed for six years
Lisa: Wow.
Carolyn King: in there. So that, and we got to know that we become a partner. Bata Shoe is one of our key partners. And that they give us full access to the collection.
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: And get to go there and look at it. We're going to go back soon. Just COVID. We're out but take some other people who haven't seen the collection.
Lisa: Oh, I want to tag along, Carolyn. Yeah.
Carolyn King: There might be a whole crew and that see and they the executive director there, her name is Elizabeth Semmelhack and that she give us full access and they give you handlers. Like you don't touch anything.
Lisa: Yeah. Gloves? Are you wearing gloves?
Carolyn King: Ya, no, we don't wear gloves, the handlers do that. And they just say what do you want to look at?
Lisa: Oh, they don't even let you touch them.
Carolyn King: So they put the moccasin on a [00:14:07] in their hands and then you get to look at it,
Lisa: Oh yeah.
Carolyn King: and then you turn it around, and you're just like showcasing it to you.
Lisa: Now the hides, after all this time of the hide, can you still smell the hides?
Carolyn King: Yeah, well, so we went there, and my first time going in there, I I say that there are a few things that stop me from talking, or take my breath away in the world. And I said this was one of them.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: When I went to, when, went into the exhibit, and that it is leather. It's smoked and it's somebody's footwear.
Lisa: Yeah,
Carolyn King: It has a smell.
Lisa: Yeah,
Carolyn King: and not only the visual ambience of it all and that I went in there and I went like literally, and I'm just like, “Oh my goodness.” I can still feel it. You know that….
Lisa: Was it like powerful? Like a powerful feeling?
Carolyn King: Yeah. Just oh my goodness. Look at all this right?
Lisa: Yeah,
Carolyn King: and that and then the ones are all over and the thing that it's because it's leather. It's considered living.
Lisa: Yeah,
Carolyn King: So that's what it to have it all separate..
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: [00:15:18] And that and what the story is that Sonja Bata she literally purchased all that herself.
Lisa: Wow.
Carolyn King: And she went out and she traveled and she you know looked at what she wanted for the exhibit and stuff and she never they say she never dickered And they said, what would you like for this?
If they said 200 or 2, 000, whatever, she paid it.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: So she did the selection of almost all of the collection.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: And So it's, it is an amazing collection. And that then they have all the curated work that goes with it. So that's what our project is based on. When we talk about these moccasin designs, that.. We can say these are based on real moccasins that are in the holdings of the Bata Shoe Museum.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: And so they, Lisa, the credibility of the designs we picked and that Philip Cote we engaged him to do the research and to look at the drawings and stuff. And so…
Lisa: And he's an [00:16:19] amazing artist. I've seen his artwork.
Carolyn King: Oh, he's just amazing. And so what we have evolved to be is the the Cree in the north. We represent, the Moccasin Identifier represents Ontario Indigenous people, linguistically.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: See, there's 133, but they're all like either Cree or Ojibwe, and so the We have the Cree in the north, and there's none here. They don't have the land base here in the southern Ontario. And then we have the Anishinaabe, kind of in most of mid to southern Ontario.
Then we have the Huron Wendats, who are now in the ground but live in Quebec.
Carolyn King: And then we use the Iroquois Seneca as they, in the historical context and for the educational. document that we have. They're the ones who first came through to settle from New York State. So that's why we use that.
Lisa: Because they were geographically on the [00:17:26] western part. Yes.
Carolyn King: Yeah, and so that's the whole historical story about, them coming in to settle and the battles that happened. And there's the Seneca sites in Toronto. You get the big archaeological sites in there. And we have the Huron Wendat up at Crawford Lake.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Carolyn King: We researched all of that. And that's how we come up with the four and we're fortunate that Philip Cote did the research and he was, went into the museum with us and he took pictures and they give him access to go back if he needed to clarify anything. So he took pictures of them and then he drew them.
And then he made the stencils from the drawings. So that's how we get to the different ones. And some of these, he said, were very difficult to make. To get the lines and so that, when you rip it off, it's there. We're always struggling every day when we're having to deal with them, right?
Lisa: Yeah, stencils are quite different.
Carolyn King: Yeah, the stencils are different.
Carolyn King: Yeah. I have the stencils, but [00:18:34] I didn't bring them in. This is the decals that we were done up for it. This is the Cree moccasin.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Carolyn King: And this is the simplified version. Because he did a very good job on them. And he put the.. A lot of detail in there, but it was too hard for the stencil to get all of that on there when you're painting. That's what we what he did. And his work is a key part of all of that.
Lisa: So, Carolyn is showing us the drawings. Yeah, I'm talking to something. Which our listeners can't see but where can they see these, Carolyn? You have a website, right?
Carolyn King: Yep. moccasinidentifier. com.
Lisa: Oh yeah, if you go to moccasinidentifier.com, you'll be able to see all four of the renditions of the moccasins used for the project.
Carolyn King: and more.
Lisa: and more now. Okay. So is this now a pro, it was started out as a project. Has it morphed now evolved, you say, into a movement?
Carolyn King: I would like to think so.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: Yeah. We, the one thing is we call it the [00:19:40] moccasin identifier project and we've dropped “project” because there's another initiative program that uses project and we get mixed up where they use real moccasins and we don't.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so we just leave it off and we don't know what to call it yet. Is it a program initiative, a campaign or a movement, right?
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: I get all excited about it being a movement.
Lisa: Yeah well, you know, with the movement, you have to involve a lot of people continuously, right? Yeah, so it could be that. It could be a movement.
Carolyn King: Yeah and so we our focus when starting it was to go into the schools.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so my, my big line is that we as First Nations people do not get a marker on the ground today. We are going to be lost forever.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: So the goal is to recreate educational stuff about us, created by us, that we engage the school system.
And that's what [00:20:45] it's evolved to today. And we focus on the education, and we call it the education kit. And it's focused on grades one to eight right now. But anybody can do it. It's a very simple process that the that has been our key focus to educate the next generation. And I say that if that this province is going to be, I say, I go, I have a dream too.
This province is going to be covered with moccasin identifiers within the next decade. And they will forever know whose land they're on. And we're starting over with the children.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: So if we can, just think 10 years that the school's system has now been more open to include the Indigenous history at least we know in Ontario it was challenged.
But we work with the teachers. They invite us in. And so we haven't been coming from the board level down. We've been coming from the teachers up. [00:21:49]
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: And so we go into the classrooms and we've done hundreds of classrooms and thousands of children.
Lisa: Oh, that's great. You have a toolkit, right? What is in the toolkit?
What kind of things are in the toolkit?
Carolyn King: This is it now.
Lisa: It's a folder?
Carolyn King: It's a folder. It was a box.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Carolyn King: Yeah and that now it's a folder and it has four stencils in it. The, I think we said the Cree, the Seneca, the Huron Wendat and the Algonquin Anishinaabe, all of that. And then inside there is a a brochure, a how-to page, and the four stencils.
Lisa: Oh, okay.
Carolyn King: Because now everything's on, the curriculum is online.
Lisa: Oh, okay.
Carolyn King: Yeah, there used to be other things, and we used to, in the box there was even the paint rollers and everything.
Lisa: Oh, yeah.
Carolyn King: But teachers, we keep checking with the teachers. Does this work?
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: How can..are you able to use it easy? What's the best thing for you?
So then we take guidance from them because it's them we want in the classroom to deliver. And [00:22:55] that so they're saying it's got to be online. And it's got to be, you can't have stuff that's going to get lost.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: So it's moved to this. And then so they, and almost every class has got paint and rollers and stuff like that. And so we that's what it is now. It's a folder that goes out.
Lisa: So when when someone gets the stencils and they want to put it somewhere do they tell your community so you have a list of where everything is?
Carolyn King: Oh well kind of. We send it out to people and we ask for feedback.
Did you, have you done it?
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: Yeah, that whole thing, did it work? What's best? And we can easily target with schools. And get feedback from the teacher who ordered and then the individuals, send us pictures.
Lisa: Oh, that's great.
Carolyn King: Give us pictures. If you put it on your sidewalk, your step or whatever.
And that's happening. Individual people
Lisa: So people that are living in a place where this could go. They could just do it themselves on the front step.
Carolyn King: [00:24:00] Yes.
Lisa: Oh, Okay.
Carolyn King: Yes.
Lisa: That's interesting.
Carolyn King: Or the street, we last year or two over the years, people have taken it up and they will June 21st, you might say, they'll do their whole, get their neighbors involve their children and they'll paint the street.
Lisa: Oh, that’s interesting.
Carolyn King: And it’s non toxic paint.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: So it's tempera paint or chalk spray.
Lisa: Okay. That's what you suggest to use.
Carolyn King: Yes. Yeah. We have to use that to go into the school.
Lisa: Oh, okay.
Carolyn King: Yeah, there’s not a choice. But if, if you have permission and it's your own staff, you could use permanent paint.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: Yeah. That's it.
Lisa: And so schools actually are doing this outside their school.
Carolyn King: Yes. On the sidewalks and playgrounds. Yes.
Lisa: Wow. Yes. I can see all of the components you have here in this it's not a project in this movement. It could really be a movement because there's so much moving parts.
Carolyn King: And we say that we want to move, go across Canada.
Lisa: Oh, wow.
Carolyn King: And so, we're doing a contract right now almost finished, but [00:25:12] we're going across Canada using, we're in partnership right now on a contract basis with Deloitte, the big consulting company, and that they are updating their land acknowledgement
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: and their entryway plaques.
In which case, they're agreeable to upgrade their land acknowledgment, and they do that with their relevant people whose ever land they're on and we're doing from Halifax to Vancouver.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so there's six places, and we have the, on the website now, people can see it, the Mi'kmaq, and what they're, Moccasin design was for the Halifax site.
So that's done. We're into Montreal with that one, Ottawa, Toronto Calgary, and BC.
Lisa: Wow.
Carolyn King: and so we're researching each one of those places,
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: and then we have an, our work with the group, and then they create update their land acknowledgement. And so the land acknowledgement is [00:26:18] getting broader where it has the First Nation, it has the land acknowledgement has it in the language, and then it has it, the two moccasins, or a moccasin or two on the picture too.
Lisa: Oh wow.
Carolyn King: Yeah, so they're getting very comprehensive. And it's great, it's a great little project. Challenging, to get to go across the country. So now we have, as I said, we have more moccasins.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: To showcase and the ideas that we're going to cover Canada.
Lisa: And so it should be, Carolyn.
Carolyn King: So it should be.
Lisa: Yes. Let's talk about, where are the famous places, I guess, that people would know about where they can find a Moccasin Identifier?
Carolyn King: It is to say that we focused on the education component and now we've expanded on the most famous is the Ontario Place. The entry wall into the Ontario Place, which was done for the 150
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: and that the Ontario Ministry of the day under [00:27:23] Kathleen Wynne's government, they looked to revitalize the Toronto Island Toronto, the Ontario Place.
And so they took a unused parking lot and I shouldn't say, “unused.” They took a parking lot and on the east side and they looked to recreate that for the people, right on the water's edge. And so the company that was doing that. Land Inc. and West 8, I think they're two consulting companies. They sent a letter to the First Nations said that we're looking doing this project and that I was already on working in the duty to consult office.
And so the current Chief, he was the counselor back then, he brought the He brought the letter over and he goes, “I think this is more like for you to do.”
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: So I went to that first meeting with the minister and so we were working with the University of Waterloo. So Fred McGarry come along with me and so we went there and I wore my vest,
Lisa: Yes.
Carolyn King: Sat in the front seat.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so they did their whole presentation about [00:28:32] the concept ideas they had already laid out for the project, and the minister, Chang or Chong, at the time, he presented and got down to, are there any questions, right away. I stood up first. I just put my hand up, and I said, we're the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and that you should not be going forward without consulting with us.. engaging in consulting with us. And I and he goes, “Yes.” And I said, I'll help you. That's what he said. And he goes, “Okay!” And it started. And I was on that project till fruition.
Lisa: Uh-huh.
Carolyn King: Because I was employed by the band and I went to all the meetings, Margaret and I. And we were on the design, basically the design team and they listened.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: You know. I did a presentation afterwards of another campaign to save the the Ontario Place a couple of years back, and that they asked me to come in and talk about my part in that the revitalization of the park there. So it's called the Trillium [00:29:38] Park and the William G. Davis Trail. And so at the entryway, the moccasin, the Anishinaabe moccasin is engraved into the wall. And it's a big stone wall that's 15 feet high and 35 feet long. And there are three huge moccasins engraved into the stone and plus signage along the way. And that we talked to them about, if they're making a park that's going to have some Indigenous perspective in it, that it not be straight lines and that it's at the water's edge, it has a fire pit.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: A fire pit, not a barbecue. And it's, we can go there and have ceremony. And it's a popular, today, it's a popular site. You have to book it. And you can go have a fire around there. And you don't have to take a little barbecue and wieners,
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: So you can still do that. So if we went there and we would do a ceremony, it can be both because it's a, nice, a really nice area and we're doing that marker [00:30:41] trees. They put Carolinian plants and just last year, they on, on, was continuing to work with them and that they had the plants are now in the English name, Latin name, Nishnabi.
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: Yeah, so we've got, I think, 17 plaques, and that when they walk down the trail, they can learn. So, and we're looking to do more, there, and they're open. We're working with the Ontario Place staff to, to do additional things. And if it works though we're gonna have, be involved with a new master plan for the Ontario Place.
Lisa: Well, that's really exciting news. I mean, you know, to make change, you gotta be change, right? You gotta get in there and tell your ideas.
Carolyn King: You gotta be there.
Lisa: You gotta be there. And I can see this Moccasin project, or I don't want to call it a project then, this Moccasin Identifier Movement to take on, like you said it's carved in the granite. You can you can make it permanent if you'd like, right? So, and I can see it in like [00:31:51] iron, how you can do iron cutouts in metal. You can do that kind of thing.
Carolyn King: That's on my. My daughter, granddaughter, gave me one for Christmas last year.
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: Year before, because I've had it a whole year. And she got the local metalworks guy to make it for me. And that it's about this long, and it's steel.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so, I'm looking to get a stand for it so I can stick it outside. “Home of the Moccasin Identifier,” right? But it's, when I do my zoom meetings, that's what's behind me. Oh, there's no getting Carolyn without the Moccasin Identifier. It's just the way it works.
Lisa: Oh, my gosh, you'll be one of those famous dots on the Google maps. Well, this, did you have anything else you wanted to share with the listeners?
Carolyn King: Well we are moving along. We are doing videos. Just to, however, we're kind of like everywhere now.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: We're really focusing, big focus on the conservation authorities.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: [00:33:00] The waterways, because that's where our people lived, along the waterways. And that they're prime groups to tell our story. This Friday we're going to be going New Credit reps and the Mississauga Nation reps. We're going to Orangeville to what's called Island Lake Conservation. It's at the source of the Credit River. We're, they've got funding, support from the First Nation to develop a whole site, teaching circles, markers and identifier trails, information things, and so that we're going to go there to have our first site design meeting with them.
Lisa: Oh.
Carolyn King: yeah, like in person.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And. They're getting they'll get ready to build. I think they got 700 plus thousand dollars as part of that initiative.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so we've designed working with them from the source to the mouth sites
Lisa: Oh yeah.
Carolyn King: that will be showcased through there. So just the start of a long process, and we're [00:34:02] working with the other conservation authorities and we as the Mississaugas, we focus in the treaty land and that, I was just talking to the Economic Development Council, I did their land acknowledgement and opening remarks last Wednesday, and that I was telling them about Treaty lands and First Nations, and I said, some of you may not have a First Nation in your municipal jurisdiction, but I says, I can guarantee that you are on somebody's treaty land.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: And so when we move forward, and that we're, you're talking about development, I said, we need somebody in that room who's going to say. Who's going to ask the question, “Will this affect the First Nations?”
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: I said, because there are rooms that we, as First Nations people, will never be invited to.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: So we need somebody in this room who's got the courage to ask that question on our behalf.
Lisa: oh. Well, let's not say never.
Carolyn King: Yeah, never. Yeah. Hopefully not. Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah.
Carolyn King: Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah. Well this has been such an[00:35:08] exciting and informative podcast with you, Carolyn to learn about the Moccasin Identifier. So if the listeners, if you want to learn more, you can go to moccasinidentifier.com. And if you're a teacher in this community, in this province please go to the moccasinidentifier.com and think about bringing that knowledge into your classroom. Okay, this has been a great time sitting and talking with my friend Carolyn. Okay, Ona:kiwa:hi (See you again), Carolyn. Yep,
Carolyn King: Yep, Onakiwa:hi to you too.
Lisa: Okay.
Carolyn King: Chi Miigwetch (Thank you in the Anishnaabe language).
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Lisa: Nia:wen (Thank you), for listening to this episode of the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast which has been produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by me, Lisa VanEvery. There are 10 episodes in this podcast series. Let's meet again on the next [00:36:08] episode.
(Music continues)
This has been the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast series. If you would like to learn more about our organization, Aboriginal Legal Services, and the programs and services we provide, please visit us at our website, www.aboriginallegal. ca. And if you feel inclined and would like to make a donation, you can click on the word, DONATE, located at the top of the homepage of our newly updated website.
You can also visit us on Facebook at Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto Canada. This has been the Yohá:te ne kahsén:na (The Road To Your Name) podcast series.
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