Would Indigenous reconciliation be better served without another footbridge?

JOHN BENNETT

   Is a new footbridge across the Rideau River at Brantwood Park needed – and would building one be a good way to contribute to Indigenous reconciliation?

   Brantwood Park is one of the most beautiful parks in Ottawa, largely because of its location on a peaceful, relatively natural stretch of the river. If you look up or down the river at Brantwood you won’t see a bridge, although there are several nearby. The Hurdman rail and footbridge provides a safe and convenient river crossing for walkers and cyclists, as the many who use it will attest. It is less than a ten-minute walk downriver from the site of the proposed bridge at the eastern end of Clegg Street.

   Since the City of Ottawa sees no immediate need for a footbridge at Brantwood Park, it has linked the project to the future Hurdman Lands housing development, meaning construction would be many years away. In hopes of accelerating construction, advocates of the proposed new footbridge have sought to make it a symbol of Indigenous reconciliation.

   In the Algonquin language, the Rideau River is called Pasāpikahigani Zibi or Pasapkedjiwanong. For millennia, it ran its natural course, undisturbed, respected, and honoured by the people who depended on it for food. But over the past two hundred years, there has been little respect for Pasapkedjiwanong. It has been dammed, diverted, polluted, dredged, dynamited, and shadowed by buildings and bridges.

   Is yet another bridge – one which is not needed and which would occupy a natural stretch of the river and disturb its wildlife – the best way for our community to contribute to reconciliation?

   Instead, we could accept reconciliation’s challenge to think differently. We could

choose to demonstrate respect for Indigenous people by putting into practice some of their principles: by respecting the river and leaving it alone.

   We could incorporate reconciliation into Brantwood Park without disturbing the river – perhaps with an annual day to honour and celebrate Pasapkedjiwanong, developed with the guidance of experts from the Algonquin First Nation. An interpretive sign or small sculpture could introduce Pasapkedjiwanong from the Algonquin perspective, as the excellent panels at the newly redeveloped Kìwekì Point (behind the National Gallery) do for Kichi Zibi, the Ottawa River.

  In this way, we could retain the unbridged beauty and tranquility of the river at Brantwood Park, show respect for Pasapkedjiwanong and the many creatures and plants that it nurtures – and help people better understand the river and the Algonquin First Nation through whose land it flows.

   John Bennett is a Glengarry Road resident of Old Ottawa East, and a regular reader of The Mainstreeter.