And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 1999 14:46:56 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Petroglyphs Curve Lake
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July 05, 1999
Aboriginal carvings not sacred, curator says Ontario Parks bans
photos of historic petroglyphs
Bob Harvey The Ottawa Citizen
STONYRIDGE, Ont. -- Historic rock carvings at Petroglyphs Park are not
sacred, and Ontario Parks shouldn't have caved in and banned photos at the
request of traditionalists, says a curator at the Canadian Museum of
Civilization in Hull. Bernard Assiniwi, himself a Cree, has studied the
petroglyphs, 40 kilometres northeast of Peterborough, and
says native traditionalists' notion that spirits reside in the rocks and
will be diminished by photographs is a modern invention. "They're going to
hate me for saying this, but it's a modern religion based on a past they
never had. These native people never had this sort of religion or contact
with what we called our god, or spirits," he said. "It is a new movement
called the native religion movement that has decided everything that is
native should be preserved and everything that is native is now part of the
native religion."
After the park opened in May for the summer season, parks officials banned
photos of the more than 800 carvings of snakes, birds, a boat and other
subjects. A week ago, they also erected a sign at the park's entrance,
saying "This park you are entering is considered a sacred and spiritual
area for aboriginal people. Please drive slowly and respect all areas in
the park." Ron Speck, superintendent of the Petroglyphs Park and other
parks in the area, said Ministry of Natural Resources officials consider
the Curve Lake First Nations band near the park the spiritual caretakers of
what they call the Teaching Rocks. He said Ojibway and other aboriginals
consider the whole park sacred, and parks officials have worked closely
with them to respect their beliefs. Many native people visit the
petroglyphs regularly to fast and meditate, and participate in
coming-of-age ceremonies. Mr. Speck said parks officials often honour
requests to make the petroglyphs off-limits to the general public. The park
opened its hiking trails to the public May 14, but the petroglyphs
themselves were off-limits until May 17, because of such ceremonies. Mr.
Speck said parks officials also decided to drop plans for a gift shop and
restaurant in a learning centre that's now under development because of
Ojibway concerns about the sale of food while natives are fasting and the
marketing of a sacred site as a tourism attraction.
Jay Johnson, assistant superintendent of the park, said the park receives
about 20,000 visitors between May and October, but there have been few
complaints over the last month about the new ban on photos. The carvings
are believed to have been carved by native shamans between 600 and 1,100
years ago, and are now housed inside a protective building. Dorothy Taylor,
a traditionalist from Curve Lake, said band members were advised by Peter
Ocheise, an Ojibway now living in Alberta, and other elders, that "once the
rocks are captured on film, it freezes the spirit. "That sounds abstract
and unbelievable, but I believe it because I know there is more to our life
than what we see," she said. Ms. Taylor has been working with parks
officials, and writes in the Petroglyph Park tabloid handed out to visitors
that "cameras and videos steal the spirit of the rock and
thereby diminish its living power. The elders have told us that this is the
primary reason for the fading of the carvings." Many of the carvings, the
largest concentration of petroglyphs in North America, were coloured black
decades ago so they could be more easily seen in the white marble, and Ms.
Taylor said she is well aware that scientists say it is the sun that is
making the black coloring fade. However, she said that for most of the 15
years she has been practising native spirituality, cameras have been banned
at any ceremonies at public pow-wows or other events where the spirits have
been invited to join in. Mr. Ocheise and some other elders also refuse to
be photographed, Ms. Taylor said. Mr. Assiniwi said the ban on photos by
some native elders is "very, very new. We always took pictures of
everything we could. If they had forbidden us to take pictures, we would
never have learned anything in the museum." He said that a century ago, the
Ojibway would have viewed the petroglyphs simply as a historical record,
not a sacred site. Mr. Assinniwi is the museum's curator for eastern and
subarctic regions and spent 25 years studying the Ojibway and petroglyphs
both at the park and on islands in Lake Superior. He said the Curve Lake
traditionalists undoubtedly believe the petroglyphs are sacred, but don't
realize they are really part of a pan-Indian movement that "adopted a
western (native American) religion that was invented in the 19th century."
He said a 19th-century Sioux chief in the western United States, Sitting
Bull, invented the feathered war bonnet, and it was adopted by James Bay
aboriginals who never wore feathered bonnets. "And they started wanting to
count coups, which never existed out east." Mr. Assiniwi said natives in
Canada's eastern woodlands believed in a God, and saw trees and other
living things as animate, but "had little room for theology. We never had
something called a religion."
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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