The Woodland Cultural Centre requested that the County of Brant consider investing $1 million into a new cultural centre during the regular Council meeting, which was held on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.
With the work to restore the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, supported by the roughly $25 million raised through the “Save the Evidence” campaign, nearly complete and with a grand opening date of what’s estimated to be around the fall of 2025, fundraising efforts are now underway to build a new Woodland Cultural Centre to go along with it.
Ava Hill, former elected Chief for Six Nations of the Grand River, told Council that with the former institute likely being the only one of the 160 residential schools to undergo renovations, they are expecting an influx of tourism in the coming years, not only from the area but globally.
“We need a new cultural centre to go with it so that when people go into the school and they hear what happened to those kids, they can then come into a new state of the art Woodland Cultural Centre and tour the museum, learn about our history, when we came here and how long we’ve been here, and about our culture,” she said.
According to the Woodland Cultural’s website, the project, designed by Two Row Architect, will not only have both permanent museum spaces and three temporary gallery spaces to safely house the centre’s over 35,000 artifacts, but will also feature education and workshop spaces, outdoor gathering spaces for land-based learning, a kitchen facility for food-based programming, and a 300-seat black box theatre.
“Our theatre used to be classrooms and a gymnasium for the kids, and it’s in very bad shape,” said Hill. “As you know, Six Nations is the largest populated First Nation in this country, and we’ve got a real treasure of talented artists and musicians and we want them to have an area where they can perform and entertain visitors.”
In order to create an environmentally sustainable building, the design also features a green roof design and specific window placement to use as much natural lighting as possible through the various seasons.
Heather George, Executive Director of the Woodland Cultural Centre, told councillors that not only does building a new cultural centre align with Brant County’s 2019 Economic Development Strategy, which prioritizes tourism, arts, culture and heritage, but that it also meets the County’s dedication to Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action.
“In your recently approved, Simply Grand Official Plan, you include an entire section related to your relationship with Indigenous folks including engaging with communities, respecting Indigenous treaty rights and engaging, of course, with the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action,” said Geroge.
At an estimated cost of $65 million dollars, the project will require significant financial contributions, and with people like Hill, Ron Jamieson, Janis Monture, Jon Davey, Katheleen Wynne and Salah Bachir, sitting on the capital campaign’s committee, fundraising is already under way with $2,211,148.90 raised to date.
Hill said that the musician, Robbie Robertson, who passed away in August of 2023, was made the honourary chairperson when the committee first started, noting that while he’s no longer alive, his family has continued to commit to the campaign.
“His family, who all lives in California right now, said that, in lieu of flowers and whatnot, they asked people to make donations towards a new cultural centre and I think we have accrued about $45,000 from that,” she said. “Just this last week, I was in Los Angeles attending a concert that was called ‘Life is a Carnival,’ which was a tribute and memorial to Robbie Robertson…and some of the proceeds from the concert, which featured people like Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Mavis Staples and Taj Mahal, are also coming towards our new cultural centre.”
Hill told councillors that with the Six Nations of the Grand River’s 59th elected council having already committed to contributing $1 million over five years, herself and the committee are encouraging both the City of Brantford and the County of Brant to do the same.
“As we move forward, we have secured funding through private donations from businesses and corporations, enough to get the renderings done and to get the feasibility study done, and so we’re making this first presentation to you and hopefully Brant County can become one of our partners as we move forward,” Hill concluded.
In the end, the councillors unanimously voted to receive the request as information and refer it to the County’s budget deliberations.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
