{"id":80991,"date":"2021-06-10T16:22:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T20:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=80991"},"modified":"2021-06-10T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T20:22:24","slug":"the-head-of-the-statue-of-egerton-ryerson-now-on-a-spike-at-land-back-lane-in-caledonia-ont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/local\/gta\/the-head-of-the-statue-of-egerton-ryerson-now-on-a-spike-at-land-back-lane-in-caledonia-ont\/","title":{"rendered":"The head of the statue of Egerton Ryerson now on a spike at Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The head from a Ryerson University statue of Egerton Ryerson, one of the architects of Canada’s residential school system, is seen after its removal, at 1492 Land Back Lane reclamation camp set up by Six Nations of the Grand River in Caledonia, Ont. (Carlos Osorio\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last seen decapitated from a statue on the Ryerson University campus in Toronto, the head of Egerton Ryerson has made its way to 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BIA calls on city to remove statue of Alexander Wood in Toronto\u2019s gay village<\/a><\/p>\n

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The area is the subject of an ongoing\u00a0land battle<\/u>\u00a0between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers, who are attempting to build residential housing on land that the Six Nations say was never ceded by the Haudenosaunee.<\/p>\n

The statue head is now resting on a “pike” overseeing the land, according to Skyler Williams, a Six Nations of the Grand River member who has been acting as spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane. The area is about 20 kilometres south of Hamilton near the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve.<\/p>\n

Williams said he doesn’t know how it got to the site, but they’ll keep it unless someone else “is wanting to take it on tour.”<\/p>\n

Ryerson\u00a0was\u00a0one of the architects of Canada’s\u00a0residential school system, which\u00a0separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families until the last one closed in 1996.<\/p>\n

“It’ll stay in its spot on the hill for the foreseeable future,” he said about the statue head.<\/p>\n

A post from a Twitter account associated with 1492 Land Back Lane showed it overlooking the land nearby.<\/p>\n

The statue was\u00a0toppled and beheaded<\/u>\u00a0on Sunday by demonstrators on the Ryerson University campus after the remains of an estimated\u00a0215 Indigenous children were detected on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.<\/u><\/p>\n

Ryerson was\u00a0the chief superintendent of education in Upper Canada (now modern-day Ontario). In 2010, Ryerson University’s Aboriginal Education Council\u00a0found<\/u>\u00a0“although [Ryerson] did not implement or oversee the launch of the schools, he contributed to the blueprint of them.”<\/p>\n

Williams said that, for him,\u00a0statues of colonial figures like\u00a0Ryerson are “iconic symbols about the genocide of our people” and “akin to having a statue of Hitler in the middle of Times Square.”<\/p>\n

Trees planted to honour\u00a0children in occupied area<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Williams said\u00a0three white pine saplings have been planted on the site of 1492 Land Back Lane as a way to memorialize the children.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think that anybody\u00a0was surprised in the Indigenous community,” he said of the remains buried at the former B.C., residential school.\u00a0“We’ve been saying this now for 50 years, at least, that there are thousands of kids\u00a0who never came home from those schools.”<\/p>\n

Williams told the CBC that he sees a direct link between their struggle to win back the land and the legacy of residential schools.<\/p>\n

“There is a very direct tie between the land-back movement and the residential schools,” said Williams, along with the Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and what he calls the Millennium Scoop\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the\u00a0disproportionate levels<\/u>\u00a0Indigenous children are separated from their parents by Canada’s child welfare systems.<\/p>\n

“When we’re talking about land back, we’re also talking about being able to invite those people home, those people who have suffered enough and need to have an opportunity to grow back into their communities.”<\/p>\n

Ryerson statue head now on\u00a0site of land dispute<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Haudenosaunee-led demonstrators say land south of Caledonia planned for residential housing developments by two companies \u2014 Foxgate Developments and Wildwood Developments \u2014 was never surrendered to the Crown.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators began occupying McKenzie Meadows on July 19, 2020, saying it’s unceded territory. They call the area 1492 Land Back Lane.<\/p>\n

\"Blockade
An Ontario Provincial Police officer guides a car past the blockade on Argyle Street, south of Caledonia, last summer. The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers. (Dan Taekema\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The demonstrators have stayed on the land for more than 300 days. There have since been\u00a0blockades<\/u>\u00a0across roads in the area,\u00a0court injunctions<\/u>\u00a0to remove the people staying there and\u00a0dozens of arrests<\/u>.<\/p>\n

Williams\u00a0turned himself in<\/u> to police on May 19 after he was charged with two counts each of mischief and disobeying a court order, as well as intimidation and failing to comply with an undertaking.<\/p>\n

“When the cops came here on the very first day and asked us how long we plan on being here, there were a bunch of us there who said, that day, that our people have been here for\u00a010,000 years, and we plan on being here for the next 10,000 more,” said Williams. “We aren’t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

“You’re going to continue to see people doing exactly what we’ve done here if there isn’t some radical change within government, and the way we are policing, and the way we are continuing to discriminate against Indigenous people making a stand for lands that are rightfully theirs.”<\/p>\n

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Statue won’t be restored or replaced<\/strong><\/h2>\n

More than 1,000 people took part in an afternoon protest on Sunday to topple the Ryerson\u00a0statue outside\u00a0the university.<\/p>\n

After it had fallen, Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi\u00a0said<\/u>\u00a0in a statement it “will not be restored or replaced.”<\/p>\n

Following the Kamloops discovery, Indigenous students at the university\u00a0also called on students, faculty and alumni to stop using the name Ryerson in their email signatures, correspondence, and on their resum\u00e9s, urging them instead to call the school X University.<\/p>\n

Two publications associated with Ryerson’s journalism school\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the Ryersonian newspaper and the Ryerson Review of Journalism magazine\u00a0\u2014\u00a0also say they will change their names.<\/p>\n

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools\u00a0and those triggered by the latest reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419<\/strong><\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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