Originally Published in McGill University's Arts Life Magazine, 2018

In only two months, McGill has made many changes on and around our downtown campus. Flags of the world frame both sides of Roddick Gates, and 12 sculptures inspired by values of First Nations heritage, education, and equality have made the campus grounds their home for the summer. While these new additions are part of a temporary outdoor exhibit, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, another long awaited and symbolically significant visible change takes place: The Hochelaga Rock has moved to the entrance of Roddick Gates, directly across the James McGill statue.

On June 21st, McGill hosted an official celebration of this move by hosting a commemorative ceremony, and making another important announcement - That after a year of research and collaboration, the final report of McGill’s Task Force on Indigenous Indigenous Studies and Education is complete and ready for implementation.

Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist and artist from Kanehsatà:ke Nation – Turtle Clan, and the former head of the First People’s House, stood present as a member of the Task Force. Poised and direct, and standing infront of the aligned flags of the Iroquois Confederacy, McGill, Quebec, and Canada, Gabriel gave an address that resonated in bittersweet tones. She asked that “McGill continues [its efforts] to consult with Indigenous elders and community members to recognize that Indigenous knowledge is the key to opening a greater understanding, and to bring out the pillars of which it’s values are on”.

For years, the Rock sat on main campus’ Lower Field, hidden somewhere between Roddick Gates and McLennan. The location was so obscure that most students never knew of its existence. Such a placement remains confusing, as the Rock holds major historical significance for Iroquoian, Canadian, and McGill history: Commemorating the land - which once belonged to the Iroquois people - that is now McGill’s downtown campus. The Rock itself also symbolizes the first contact made between the settlers of Jacques Cartier and the Iroquois of Turtle Island.

Another speaker was retired McGill Professor Michael Loft, of the Mohawk community at Kahnawake. Professor Loft was especially excited the idea of making Aboriginal presence more visible on campus.

“I would like to see this beautiful flag [of the Iroquois Confederacy] fly on top of the Arts Building, give the Martlet a break. Each year, on National Aboriginal Day, and perhaps a couple of days afterwards, that wouldn’t hurt anybody. That’s our good Provost’s idea. And to rotate, every year or month, with the flags of other Aboriginal nations”, Loft said in his lighthearted address.

The Task Force was launched in 2016, under Provost Christopher Manfredi’s mandate, and bolstered by the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It places particular emphasis on the role of education and Canadian institutions in confronting the profound harms of colonial legacies like the residential school system. The Task Force’s 50-page report summarized it’s McGill-specific findings to 5 Calls to Action: Student Recruitment and Retention; Physical Representation and Symbolic Recognition; Academic Programs and Curriculum; Research and Academic Complement; and Building Capacity and Human Resources.

Though all Calls were recognized in each address, the Indigenous speakers at the ceremony all paid particular care to the issue of representation, recognition, and visibility.

“They will feel a home, in their homelands”, Gabriel said, explaining the unique importance that increased representation in school has for McGill’s current and future Indigenous students. “They will feel the pride that should have been there all along, that colonization has tried to take away. And I ask McGill, don’t practice what the government is doing and the status quo. Consult with indigenous communities. McGill, we are there with you. We don’t want you ahead or behind us, we will walk beside you.”

Professor Loft shared similar sentiments. “As we come down Sherbrooke, all these flags here make you feel good. It’s nice to see that. But we want our flag to be there too someday. We want to feel good, and it’s going to make us feel welcome.”

“This single act from McGill, putting up this flag, explaining a little more of the true story of the contact between Cartier and the ancient Iroquois, is going to help piece things together. I think it has to be done – it will send a powerful message of acceptance across Turtle Island.”