Jukasa News Update – Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Restoration work at the former Mohawk Institute residential school is nearing completion and officials with the Woodland Cultural Centre presented details at Six Nations General Council on Tuesday.
Melanie Fernandez shared images showing drastic improvements to the former residential school from 2014 – 2019 that brought it from being condemned — to it’s newly restored state. The building is now well on it’s way to telling visitors the story of Indian Residential Schools in Canada.
A new roof has been installed, original fixtures were restored where possible. All of the buildings footings has to be repelaced.
The language department, library and finance department are now moving back into the building.
Fernandez says exterior masonry work still needs to be restored and original windows needs to be replaced.
The restoration work also includes compiling residential school student survivor stories and preparing to share those stories with visitors when the museum is ready to open to the public.
An invasive species of common reeds on Six Nations is proving to be a big job for local ecologists to manage — one that could potentially lead to complications for Six Nations indigenous ecosystems.
Carole Smith, operations manager at Kayanase says the common reed creates a monoculture in the ecosystems it occupies — expressing toxic elements into the soil through it’s root system. — making It the only plant that can survive in the area and overcrowding indigenous plants.
The reed can reach heights of 20 feet high. Smith says those reeds cannot simply be cut down or burned.
Smith told SNEC the way Kayanase is removing patches of the plant is to spray the area with glyphosate. Smith says Kayanse complies with the Ontario Pesticides Act and that residents are advised not to enter areas that have been sprayed for 48 hours after a treatment.
Kayanase is working on a project for next year that would map patches of phragmites in the community to monitor the spread of the invasive species. Anyone looking for more information can contact Kayanase at (519) 770-0013.
Big Joe Sharrow approached Six Nations Elected Council to ask to waive the rental fee at Six Nations Community Hall for a Halloween Dry Dance on October 26.
Sharrow, a local musician who has taken action to overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol in his own life, has been organizing a number of dry dance events for adults in the community. Six Nations Elected Council voted to waive the cost for the hall.
MEMORIAL PARK
Two Six Nations residential school survivors are travelling to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to sit on a panel at the Maamiikwendan: Remembering Residential Schools & Cemeteries as Indigenous Sites of Conscience on the Long Plain First Nation.
Two survivors requested just over $3023 in funding for additional survivors to travel with them to the two-day event. Elected Council voted unanimously in favour of granting the funds to come from OFNLP funding.
A 23-year-old man is dead after a collision on a stretch of Highway 401 running through London, Ont.
Provincial police say the crash took place Monday night at about 9 p.m.
They say it happened when a passenger vehicle began driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of the highway and collided head-on with a commercial vehicle.
The driver of the passenger vehicle, Ronald Elijah-Brown of London, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say the driver of the commercial vehicle was not seriously injured.
The collision closed a stretch of highway for several hours, but police said all lanes were open again as of Tuesday morning.
- Previous Jukasa News Update Thursday, September 12, 2019
- Next Jukasa News Update Monday, September 23, 2019
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