A local Indigenous group wants Belle Island, an Indigenous burial ground, and the adjacent Belle Park restored to its former state.
The park was first a marshland, a dump and then a golf course.
Since the golf course closed in 2017, the city has been holding public consultations to see how they should to redevelop the land for more recreational uses.
But the Belle Island Caretaker’s Council, an Indigenous group set up to protect the burial ground on the island, believes the area has been already too disturbed.
“What’s happened with the park and the island is desecration,” said Travis Canadien, a member of the council.
He says that 1,100 years ago, Indigenous people hunted and fished off the island, and then it was turned into a burial ground.
Several bodies were discovered in 1988, according to the Cataraqui Archeological Research Foundation, when the city was working on the island to create a beach.
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The bodies were buried again on the island the following year.
And though Belle Island was not used as a landfill, it was used as the fourth hole green while the golf course was opened. Two bridges were built between the park and the island to accommodate golf carts, which have left the island open to the public, who have camped on it, leaving behind garbage and debris.
Now that the city is holding public consultations about the area, the Belle Island Caretakers Council is seeking to have the park and the island returned to a natural state, and to have it be undisturbed for the land to heal.
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But the city has had several proposals.
“We’ve certainly heard naturalization, sports fields, sports courts, play structures, picnic areas,” said Luke Follwell, director of recreation and leisure for the city. He continued, saying the city is also considering implementing accessible parking, trails and an off-leash dog park in the Belle Park area.
It won’t be long until the city will have to decide, since the new vision for the park is meant to be unveiled in June.
In recent years, the Indigenous community, with the help of the city, has been cleaning up Belle Island. They hope one day to set up an education centre to honour the land and its deep Indigenous heritage.
The city, for its part, has begun revitalization in Belle Park by planting hundreds of trees — something Canadien says is necessary for the healing process.
“We refer to trees in the Indigenous culture as our standing family — our brothers and sisters,” Canadien said. “So using our standing family, the trees to heal the earth is using mother earth to heal mother earth.”
— With files from Alexandra Mazur.
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