Pandemic response - Week 82 - Sault Ste. Marie Part 1

After leaving Manitoulin Island my next stop was Sault Ste. Marie and a visit with my godparents, a.k.a. my ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’.

The John Rowswell Hub Trail is a 22.5 kms long trail that winds its way around the city of Sault Ste. Marie.  I did a section of it that goes through the beautiful Fort Creek Conservation Area.  The primary purpose of the Fort Creek Conservation Area is flood control but it also provides the ancillary benefit of green space and wildlife habitat. A series of steel and wooden bridges traverse over wetlands and the colours were spectacular!

I have never seen a sign like this before (ha, ha!).

Looking down on a beaver dam.

My second destination today was the Shingwauk Residential School Centre.  Shingwauk Hall, a central and integral part of the Algoma University campus, was first established in 1873 as a residential school for First Nations children, and operated as such until the Shingwauk Indian Residential School closed in 1970.  The building is one of the oldest landmarks in the Sault Ste. Marie area.

The school was named after prominent Anishinaabe Chief Shingwaukonse, whose vision for a school where Anishinaabe students could acquire European-based knowledge and skills that would enable them to thrive in a rapidly changing society led to the establishment of earlier schools in the region.  Unfortunately though, over the course of its 96 years of existence, it was a Shingwauk school in name only as Chief Shingwaukonse’s true vision was lost.

Since the closure of the school in 1970, the site has been a place of cultural reclamation and education.  For decades, Algoma University, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (Shingwauk University), the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, and their partners have been committed to the restoration of the true intent and spirit of Chief Shingwaukonse’s vision - cross-cultural education and learning - and the reinterpretation of the site as a place for healing and reconciliation.

Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel (1883) is the only remaining building from the early years of the Shingwauk School.  It was named after the first Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Algoma. During the operation of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School students and staff attended weekly services at the chapel and the building was also used for weddings, funerals and special occasions.

The Shingwauk Memorial Cemetery contains the graves of over 120 students and staff of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School.  Many of these graves are unmarked.  The cemetery was consecrated in 1876 and the stone wall which surrounds the older original portion of the cemetery was constructed by the students of the Shingwauk School.

A monument erected by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association and other concerned survivors of the Shingwauk school in memory of all who are buried in the cemetery.