Would it be politically incorrect to add to the statute of Queen Victoria and the Lion? I think not. I have a suggestion or two although will not make my suggestions in your blog. Personally may I suggest renaming Victoria Park with an Indigenous Name, and leave the statute. Furthermore, I would encourage some thought of removing the cannon from the island that is symbolically aimed at another statute.
I wouldn't mess with the monument as the artist and the commissioners intended, but the cannon is an add-on, and I agree that it might be better placed somewhere else. In its place, maybe a bit farther out, I like to imagine good-hearted valley dwellers planting a White Pine, nurturing it with thoughts, hopes and prayers for peace, along with a resolve to seek truth, reconciliation, wisdom and justice. We could then look forward to the day when the tree grows taller than Victoria on her pedestal, and eventually relieves her with some shade without obscuring her image. I'm not keen on corporate (or Soviet) style renaming (I still say Skydome, O'Keefe Centre, Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Bank of Montreal, Commerce, Nova Scotia, etc.). But people can call the Park whatever they like. "Willow River" enriches its meaning and deepens its relevance. There is no need, however, to force it on everyone by law or edict. That's the colonial way. Let's listen to what the waters say instead. Someday, the Grand and its tributary rivers and creeks, and others that are weakly named - Thames, Trent, Don, Humber, Credit - will tell us what their true names are.
Again, telling the story this way doesn’t have to be yet another way of separating the sheep from the goats, or reducing the story to two polarities that are intrinsically at odds with one another. We have far too many of those kinds of distinctions already, each with a measure of credibility but none that are anywhere near the whole truth. The purpose of the kind of differentiation I’m proposing here is to set the stage for reconciliation and genuine peace, not triumph and capitulation.
Would it be politically incorrect to add to the statute of Queen Victoria and the Lion? I think not. I have a suggestion or two although will not make my suggestions in your blog. Personally may I suggest renaming Victoria Park with an Indigenous Name, and leave the statute. Furthermore, I would encourage some thought of removing the cannon from the island that is symbolically aimed at another statute.
I wouldn't mess with the monument as the artist and the commissioners intended, but the cannon is an add-on, and I agree that it might be better placed somewhere else. In its place, maybe a bit farther out, I like to imagine good-hearted valley dwellers planting a White Pine, nurturing it with thoughts, hopes and prayers for peace, along with a resolve to seek truth, reconciliation, wisdom and justice. We could then look forward to the day when the tree grows taller than Victoria on her pedestal, and eventually relieves her with some shade without obscuring her image. I'm not keen on corporate (or Soviet) style renaming (I still say Skydome, O'Keefe Centre, Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Bank of Montreal, Commerce, Nova Scotia, etc.). But people can call the Park whatever they like. "Willow River" enriches its meaning and deepens its relevance. There is no need, however, to force it on everyone by law or edict. That's the colonial way. Let's listen to what the waters say instead. Someday, the Grand and its tributary rivers and creeks, and others that are weakly named - Thames, Trent, Don, Humber, Credit - will tell us what their true names are.
Again, telling the story this way doesn’t have to be yet another way of separating the sheep from the goats, or reducing the story to two polarities that are intrinsically at odds with one another. We have far too many of those kinds of distinctions already, each with a measure of credibility but none that are anywhere near the whole truth. The purpose of the kind of differentiation I’m proposing here is to set the stage for reconciliation and genuine peace, not triumph and capitulation.