More than 20 people gathered at the Zatzman Sportsplex in Dartmouth to come up with some answers to some difficult questions around Halifax’s Indigenous and colonial history.
It’s part of the second phase of the public consultation work being undertaken by the Cornwallis task force will that will wrap up this week.
Under the revised name, “The Task Force on the Commemoration of Edward Cornwallis and the Recognition and Commemoration of Indigenous History,” the team began phase two of its public engagement sessions Monday night, where residents met to dig into the history of Edward Cornwallis.
Following the engagement sessions, it will be up to the task force’s appointed co-chairs and its team to clearly lay out and define how the Halifax Regional Municipality can move forward with commemorating both its Indigenous and colonial history.
“Tonight we have two guiding questions: the first one is what do people think we should consider when commemorating history in general?” said Cornwallis task force co-chair Dr. Monica MacDonald.
Cornwallis, the controversial former governor of Nova Scotia who founded Halifax in 1749, was known to have put a bounty on the heads of the Mi’kmaq people during that time.
Centuries later, the debate currently underway can be uneasy at times, as the municipality and community members come together to try and determine an appropriate way the city can recognize and commemorate both the Indigenous history and that of the colonial settlers like Cornwallis.
“I guess the toughest part is getting people to open up and just sort of accept what we’re dealing with and what we had dealt with in the past,” said co-chair Chief Roderick Googoo.
“I think people right now are speaking openly and one of the greatest things that came out of this is that the conversation got started.”
Halifax Regional Municipality made national headlines last year when council voted to remove the Edward Cornwallis statue from the downtown park that also bears his name.
On Tuesday night, the final public input session will take place at the Mi-Kmaw Friendship Centre, where the task force will then take all public input and write a report with a recommendation to council on how the municipality can approach its history and move forward.
The task force knows other communities — across Canada and abroad — are watching closely.
“We have to be very mindful that this is a unique situation here in Halifax also,” said Dr. MacDonald.
“We’re dealing with Cornwallis, we’re dealing with his time period, and we’re dealing with the time period in which his statue was erected and then the time period in between those two eras and the legacy of Cornwallis.”
The task force is expected to deliver its report to council by December of next year.
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