The Mawandoseg Centre, formerly the Carleton University Students’ Association Aboriginal Centre, has launched a petition to move Carleton’s teepee closer to Ojigkwanong, in Paterson Hall.
Tess Laude, the centre’s co-ordinator, said she started the petition to gauge student support for moving the ceremonial structure to a more accessible location farther away from the O-Train tracks.
“We were sitting in ceremony and we would have to stop speaking because this big O-Train would come by,” she said. “Not that it was disruptive or anything but it definitely changes the atmosphere.”
The teepee is currently located behind Robertson Hall in Alumni Park, across from the River Building.
Laude said this is too far away from the lounge in Ojigkwanong, the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education, and construction on campus has made the walk difficult, especially after dark.
“It’s not the most accessible walk,” she said. “You have to go up a lot of stairs or you have to take a very long route to get there.”
Rodney Nelson, the Aboriginal Enriched Support Program co-ordinator for Carleton, said this location is problematic as well.
“The O-Train’s very loud,” he said. “It kind of interrupts [the] ceremony and it interrupts classes and things like that.”
There are two possible locations for the teepee, according to Laude. Suggestions have been made to move it to the outdoor amphitheatre between the Loeb Building and Paterson Hall, while others advocate for it being moved beside the Locavore statue in the library quad.
If the petition is successful, this will be the fourth time the teepee has been moved. It was originally built behind the Loeb Building.
Nelson said the teepee not only plays an integral part in the ceremonial life of Indigenous students, but helps to bring awareness to the importance of their cultures on campus.
“Reconciliation is not something that’s just for Indigenous people. It’s for everybody. So creating awareness of the history and of the future together . . . I think that’s an important thing,” he said.
Although Carleton’s Aboriginal Education Council (AEC) has been working to indigenize the university, Nelson said that this petition shows that Indigenous students want more representation.
“They’re looking for more symbols around campus so that things are more visible,” he said. “This is traditional unceded Algonquin territory . . . we need to acknowledge the territory and that we need to do more.”
He said moving the teepee to a better location is a great first step.
Laude said she agrees with Nelson, but said she understands that the teepee is not representative of the Algonquin people.
“I know in the past people have spoken about having a wigwam built instead of having the teepee because the teepee is kind of one of those Pan-Indian symbols,” she said.
She said she still agrees the teepee has valuable purpose on campus for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Laude said she hopes that a new location will inspire more students to use the space.
“A lot of people know where the teepee is, but it’s really far out of the way and not at the heart of the campus,” she said. “It would be nice to have it available to anybody to go in and learn some things.”
As of publication, the petition has reached 89 signatures, but it needs 100 before it can be sent to the AEC for review.
“If we are trying to encourage faculty and we’re trying to encourage students to actually use the teepee, then we need to have it in a place that’s accessible.” Laude said. “It’s a beautiful space.”
