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Ontario History

’Free from all possibility of historical error’ Orillia’s Champlain Monument, French-English Relations, and Indigenous (Mis)Representations in Commemorative Sculpture Michael D. Stevenson

Volume 109, Number 2, Fall 2017 Article abstract The 1925 unveiling of the Champlain monument in Orillia capped nearly three URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1041285ar decades of public commemoration of Samuel de Champlain’s explorations in DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1041285ar North America. Promoted tirelessly by local entrepreneur Charles Harold Hale and designed by English sculptor Vernon March, the monument was beset by See table of contents controversy, construction delays and cost overruns. Nonetheless, when completed, it was initially greeted with nearly unanimous international acclaim. Two overarching themes marked the monument. First, its backers sought to use Publisher(s) it to improve frayed relations between Ontario’s anglophone and Quebec’s francophone populations. Second, the monument’s design misrepresented the The Ontario Historical Society mutually beneficial relationship between Champlain and his Huron allies and promoted Eurocentric and colonial mentalities that marginalized the Indigenous ISSN contribution to the development of New France and Canada. While the first goal was largely unrealized, the second has resonated down to the present day. 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital)

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Cite this article Stevenson, M. D. (2017). ’Free from all possibility of historical error’: Orillia’s Champlain Monument, French-English Relations, and Indigenous (Mis)Representations in Commemorative Sculpture. Ontario History, 109(2), 213–237. https://doi.org/10.7202/1041285ar

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’Free from all possibility of historical error’ Orillia’s Champlain Monument, French-English Relations, and Indigenous (Mis)Representations in Commemorative Sculpture

by Michael D. Stevenson

n 1 July 1925, a jubilant crowd brought to Huronia’s Indigenous popu- estimated at more than 10,000 lation by Recollect friars and coureurs de persons thronged Couchich- bois. Representing the Dominion gov- ingO Beach Park in the town of Orillia, ernment, Rodolphe Lemieux, the Speak- Ontario, to witness the unveiling of the er of the House of Commons, addressed Samuel de Champlain monument cele- the festive audience and lauded the na- brating the French explorer’s visit to Hu- tion-building initiatives inaugurated by ronia in 1615-1616. Designed by famed French pioneers that resonated into the sculptor Vernon March and standing twentieth century: thirty-six feet in height, the monument ey planted here a new society in the featured a twelve-foot bronze of a swash- principles of the purest religion; they sub- buckling Champlain standing atop an dued the wilderness before them; they built temples to the true God where formerly had imposing stone pedestal, with two side ascended the smoke of idolatrous sacrices; bronze groupings titled “Christianity” they broke the rst sod where now extend and “Commerce” emphasizing the as- elds and gardens, and stretching over the sumed spiritual and economic benets hills and valleys which had never until then

Ontario History / Volume CIX, No. 1 / Autumn 2017

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been reclaimed, can now be seen in the autumn, the waving of golden harvests. Abstract From the farms, the factories, the vil- lages, the cities, the resides scattered in 1925 uneiling of the Champlain monument e Ontario and uebec is raised the joyous in Orillia capped nearly three decades of public com- murmur of wealth, agricultural, indus- memoration of Samuel de Champlain’s explorations 1 in North America. Promoted tirelessly by local entre- trial, and commercial. preneur Charles Harold Hale and designed by Eng- e 1925 celebration in Oril- lish sculptor Vernon March, the monument was beset by controersy, construction delays and cost overruns. lia capped nearly three decades Nonetheless, when completed, it was initially greeted of public commemoration recog- with nearly unanimous international acclaim. Two nizing Champlain’s explorations overarching themes marked the monument. First, its in North America, with major backers sought to use it to improe ayed relations be- monuments of the French voyager tween Ontario’s anglophone and Quebec’s ancophone populations. Second, the monument’s design misrep- unveiled in uebec City (1898), resented the mutually benecial relationship between Saint John (1910), and Ottawa Champlain and his Huron allies and promoted Eu- (1915). ese tributes were also rocentric and colonial mentalities that marginalized part of a broader impulse to com- the Indigenous contribution to the development of New France and Canada. While the rst goal was memorate signicant events in the largely unrealized, the second has resonated down to history of Canada and the British the present day. Empire, and the period from the 1890s to the 1930s represented the Résumé: En 1925 à Orillia, le dévoilement du golden age of monument build- monument de Champlain avait été le point culmi- ing and public remembrance of nant de commémorations publiques de l’exploration events such as the diamond ju- de l’Amérique du Nord par Samuel de Champlain. bilee of ueen Victoria in 1897, Promu sans relâche par l’entrepreneur local Charles Harold Hale et conçu par le sculpteur anglais Vernon the South African War, uebec’s March, ce monument fut proie à des controerses, des tercentenary in 1908, and the First délais de construction et des dépassements de coûts. World War. e many scholarly ac- Néanmoins, une fois complété, il fut reconnu sur la counts of these commemorations scène internationale. Deux thèmes principaux cara- ctérisaient ce monument. Premièrement, ses fonda- and monument constructions in- teurs oulaient l’utiliser pour améliorer les relations clude several of the most highly entre les populations anglophones de l’Ontario et regarded studies published in the ancophones du Québec. Deuxièmement, la concep- elds of Canadian social and cul- tion du monument n’avait pas bien représenté la re- lation mutuellement bénéque entre Champlain and tural history, among them H.V. ses alliés Hurons et avançait une mentalité coloniale Nelles’ e Art of Nation Building et eurocentrique qui minimalisait la contribution in- and Jonathan Vance’s Death So No- digène au développement de la Nouvelle France et du Canada. Si le premier objectif a échoué, le second en 1 “Mr. Lemieux’s Oration at the Un- revanche résonne jusqu’à nos jours. veiling,” Orillia Packet, 2 July 1925. 2 H.V. Nelles, e Art of Nation-Build- ing: Pageantry and Spectacle at Quebec’s

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ble.2 Yet the Champlain monument in torical representation of Indigenous Orillia remains virtually ignored in this populations. ese representations have otherwise rich historiography—which frequently portrayed First Nations in a also extends to cover monument build- subservient or diminished role. Vivien ing in most industrial societies3—despite Green Fryd, for example, describes the its impressive cost and scale, its national Native American in Benjamin West’s and international reception, and its suc- Death of General Wolfe as combining cessful placement in a small Ontario “masculine power with feminine weak- town seemingly unsuited to host such a ness, underscoring both his strength major commemorative marker.4 A com- and his subservience to British power. prehensive examination of the history of By rendering the Indian as naked and Orillia’s Champlain monument provides vulnerable in his seated pose, West di- critical insight into the role of local entre- minished his threat and placed him in a preneurs in fostering civic pride, the part secondary position, as a tributary to the played by external events in dictating the British forces during the French and In- pace of the monument’s construction, dian War.”5 Artists and sculptors them- and the long-term signicance of his- selves frequently emphasized their intent torical memorials in fostering a distinct to denigrate Indigenous peoples in their municipal identity in Canada during the work. In his written interpretation of twentieth century. the Canadian Nurses’ Association War Perhaps the most illuminating issue Memorial in Ottawa unveiled in 1926, in the examination of the Champlain for example, sculptor George William monument in Orillia concerns the his- Hill described the “noble sisters” who

Tercentenary (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), and Jonathan Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997). See also James Opp and John C. Walsh, eds., Placing Memory and Remembering Place in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010); Phillip Buckner and John G. Reid, eds., Remembering 1759: e Conquest of Canada in Historical Memory (Toronto: Univer- sity of Toronto Press, 2012); Cecilia Morgan, Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory, and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860-1980 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015); and Greg Marquis, “Cel- ebrating Champlain in the Loyalist City: Saint John, 1904-10,” Acadiensis, 33:2 (2004), 27-43. 3 See David Gobel and Daves Rossell, eds., Commemoration in America: Essays on Monuments, Me- morialization, and Memory (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013); Rachel Tsang and Eric Taylor Woods, eds., e Cultural Politics of Nationalism and Nation-Building (New York: Routledge, 2014); Stefan Berger and Bill Niven, eds., Writing the History of Memory (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: e Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994); and Robert S. Nelson and Margaret Olin, eds., Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). 4 For a concise overview of Champlain memorial monuments, see Patrice Groulx, “In the Shoes of Samuel de Champlain,” in Raymone Litalien and Denis Vaugeois, eds., Champlain: e Birth of French America [translated by Käthe Roth] (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-ueen’s University Press, 2004), 335-45. Groulx’s description of the Champlain monument in Orillia covers two pages. 5 Vivien Green Fryd, “Rereading the Indian in Benjamin West’s ‘Death of General Wolfe,’” American Art, 9:1 (1995), 84.

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“came to a land of savages to help the sick teenth century allowing Orillia—with a and needy.” Beside the nun on the right population of 6,828 residents in 1911— of his chiseled panel, Hill noted, “are to become the primary industrial centre standing the dreaded and treacherous in Ontario north of Toronto.7 Between Iroquois, who, suspicious and ignorant, 1901 and 1911, the number of factories were ever ready to return evil for good.”6 in the town increased from twenty-nine ese commonly-expressed sentiments to forty, and the value of goods pro- proved important in the design of the duced swelled from $1.2 million to $4.6 Champlain monument in Orillia, where million in the three-year period before the celebration, according to the monu- 1912 alone. Energetic entrepreneurs and ment’s plaque inscription, of the “advent civic promoters imbued with the “Oril- into Ontario of the white race” and the lia Spirit” orchestrated this growth, chief desire to strengthen ties between English among them James Tudhope and Charles and French Canada trumped any pos- Harold Hale. Aer forming the Tudhope sible intention to portray Champlain’s Carriage Company in 1897, Tudhope complex interaction with Huronia’s In- unveiled his rst line of automobiles in digenous population in an equitable and 1907, and he then formed the Tudhope historically accurate manner. Motor Company in 1909 and produced the Tudhope-Everitt, a four-cylinder ve- e Commissioning of the hicle almost completely engineered and Champlain Monument built in Orillia.8 Hale tirelessly promoted rillia developed a dynamic com- Orillia’s economic interests, most nota- Omercial and manufacturing econo- bly as the proprietor of the weekly Packet my by the start of the First World War, newspaper and as the president of the with the provision of hydroelectric pow- town’s Board of Trade. Hale also found- er to the town and the development of a ed the Orillia branch of the Canadian regional railway system in the late nine- Club in 1905 and proved the driving

6 uoted in Kathryn McPherson, “Carving Out a Past: e Canadian Nurses’ Association War Memorial,” Histoire Sociale/Social History, 29:58 (1996), 424. Additional studies examining the histori- cal representations of Canada’s First Nations include: Daniel Francis, e Imaginary Indian: e Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1992); Ruth B. Phillips, “Settler Monu- ments, Indigenous Memory: Dis-membering and Re-membering Canadian Art History,” in Nelson and Olin, Monuments and Memory, 281-304; and Sarah A. Wilkinson, “ e Living Monument: A Consid- eration of the Politics of Indigenous Representation and Public Historical Monuments in uebec” (MA esis: Concordia University, 2011). For the representation of Aboriginals in Australian memorial sculp- ture, see Stephen Slemon, “Monuments of Empire: Allegory/Counter-Discourse/Post-Colonial Writing,” Kunapipi, 9:3 (1987), 1-16, and Joanna Besley, “At the Intersection of History and Memory: Monuments in ueensland,” Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, 11 (2005), 38-46. 7 See E.J. Noble, Entrepreneurship and Nineteenth Century Urban Growth: A Case Study of Orillia, Ontario,” Urban History Review, 9:1 (1980), 64-89. 8 For an overview of Tudhope’s business activities, see Randy Richmond, e Orillia Spirit: An Illus- trated History of Orillia (Toronto: Dundurn, 1996), 54-58.

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force behind the creation of the Orillia monument to be unveiled on 17 August Water, Light, and Power Commission in 1915—the three-hundredth anniversary 1913. Hale cultivated extensive political of Champlain’s arrival in Cahiagué—re- contacts at municipal, provincial, and ceived approval on 6 February 1913. Dr. national levels before 1914, and he later Alex Fraser, the Provincial Archivist of became a friend and condant of Prime Ontario, advised Hale that Orillia should Minister Arthur Meighen and Ontario aim for “something really outstanding,” Premier Leslie Frost.9 since it would be “easier to put over a big Hale championed the construction deal than something smaller and com- of the Champlain monument in Orillia. monplace.”11 Hale took this advice and Aer working himself to exhaustion sup- doubled the proposed fundraising tar- porting the Conservative Party’s success- get from the already substantial sum of ful eort to defeat reciprocity in the 1911 $10,000 to $20,000, believing that an federal election, Hale vacationed in the ambitious fundraising campaign would Maritimes and uebec during the sum- oset the danger that “our proposal will mer of 1912 and viewed the monuments be treated as local and lumped in with a to Champlain in Saint John and uebec lot of other celebrations throughout the City. Hale immediately conceived a plan country.” 12 to mark the tercentenary of Champlain’s Subscriptions covering the monu- presence in Huronia by erecting a monu- ment’s initial proposed cost were quickly ment in Orillia, the closest town to the secured. Lord Strathcona pledged $1,000, site of the Huron capital of Cahiagué in the Orillia town council voted $1,500, 1615. Hale rejected early advice that a and the Ontario government—aer some proposed monument be modest in size; prevarication—promised $2,500 towards since the existing statues in Saint John the project. Hale and Fraser arranged a and uebec City were designed to show- meeting with Prime Minister Robert Bor- case provincial and not local history, Hale den in Ottawa on 22 February 1913 to ask argued, “nothing less imposing would the Dominion government for a $10,000 be worthy of Ontario, and of the great contribution. Borden proved unable to explorer who led the rst white expedi- see the representatives of the Champlain tion into its forest depths.”10 Returning tercentenary committee because of his to Orillia, Hale presented his idea to the commitments in parliament, but Minister town’s Canadian Club, and the plan for a of Finance Sir omas White, a patron of

9 For an autobiographical account of Hale’s career, see Reminiscences of Charles Harold Hale: Orillia, 1874-1963 (Orillia: Stubley Printing, 1966). 10 “ e Story of the Champlain Monument,” Orillia Packet, 2 July 1925. 11 uoted in J.C. Grossmith, ed., Anecdotes of Old Orillia: A Collection of the Works of Allan Ironside (Orillia: Orillia Historical Society, 1984), 90. 12 Hale to Fraser, 22 February 1913, Archives of Ontario [hereaer AO], Champlain Monument Committee Fonds [hereaer CMC], Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspond- ence, 1913-1914.

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the arts with a keen interest in Canadian sults.” Entrants were instructed to consult history, promised the visiting delegation Champlain’s journals of his expedition to that he would recommend to his cabinet Huronia, Francis Parkman’s Pioneers of colleagues that money be voted to sup- France in the New World, and Narcisse- port the construction of the monument.13 Eutrope Dionne’s Champlain in the Mak- Parliamentary estimates subsequently al- ers of Canada series for historical context. lotted $7,500 to the Orillia undertaking, All designs were to be submitted by 20 and White privately assured Hale that ad- June 1914, and a “competent committee” ditional funds would be provided if need- of ve or seven members would conduct ed. Eventually, the Borden government’s a blind adjudication of the entries and contribution totaled $12,500. White also announce a winning submission by 20 placed Hale in contact with Sir Edmund July 1914; a prize of $500 would also be Walker, the widely-connected president awarded to the second place model.15 of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and Twenty-two sculptors—six from of the Champlain Society, and Walker en- France, nine from Canada, and seven from thusiastically endorsed the eort to build Britain—submitted entries to the Cham- the Champlain monument. “For ten plain monument competition. French en- years,” Hale later recalled, Walker “gave trants included Medal of Honor recipient us unsparingly of his time, and his advice Ernest Dubois and Prix du Rome winner and active assistance were invaluable.”14 Paul Roussel. Both men were famous for Assured of nancial support, the ter- their bronze and marble compositions, centenary committee released an interna- with Dubois’ depiction of French Revo- tional call for preliminary designs of the lutionary zeal in “Le Vengeur” displayed monument in December 1913. Open to in the Pantheon and Roussel’s statue of British subjects and citizens of the French the Duc d’Aumale adorning the Louvre Republic, white plaster sketch-models on Palace. Canadian competitors included a uniform scale of 1.5 inches to the foot Hamilton MacCarthy, the sculptor of the would display “as the chief feature of the Ottawa monument to Champlain un- monument a statue of Champlain upon a veiled in 1915, and Emanuel Hahn, who pedestal which may or may not have oth- would later become one of the country’s er gures emblematic of circumstances most prolic sculptors. British entries re- connected with his expedition and its re- ceived both top prizes. F. Fleming Baxter,

13 “Memorandum Regarding Proposed Memorial to Samuel de Champlain,” Undated, AO, CMC, Box 3, MU 530, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Misc. Papers, Pictures, etc. 14 Hale, Reminiscences of Charles Harold Hale, 23. For a solid overview of Walker’s life and career, see Barbara Marshall, “Sir Edmund Walker, Servant of Canada” (MA esis: University of British Columbia, 1971). 15 “Proposed Monument to Samuel de Champlain at Orillia, Ontario, Canada,” 20 December 2013, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1913-1914. Advertise- ments sponsored by the tercentenary committee were placed in leading newspapers in Canada, France, and England, including the Times of London.

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Figure 1—Vernon March’s 1914 Competition Submis- sion. [Source: Archives of Ontario, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspond- ence, 1913-1914]

a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors whose internationally exhib- ited “ e Prayer of Faith” had been do- nated to Edmonton’s Strathcona Library in 1913, claimed the second place prize. Vernon March emerged victorious in the competition. Although only twenty-two years old, March belonged to a family of distinguished artists and sculptors, and he would eventually design the South African Cenotaph in Cape Town and the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Unfortunately, only four of the contest entries (in whole or in part) submitted by these sculptors can be located, with the majority of the remaining submis- sions being either destroyed or returned to their creators.16 the gure the energy and courage of the e announcement on 10 October explorer, and yet to keep a dignied and 1914 awarding the Champlain monu- thoughtful attitude.” e groups—in the ment commission to March generated original design also in stone—on each side considerable controversy. e artistic of the pedestal represented “the introduc- merit of March’s submission (see Figure tion of Commerce and Christianity to 1) was not challenged. e proposed the Indians, the standing gures being on twelve-foot bronze of Champlain astride the one side a priest and on the other a a rough-hewn stone pedestal successfully trader.”17 But March also held advantages endeavoured “to express in the pose of not available to other entrants. At the

16 Nine of the plaster models were destroyed and eight were returned. One model each was donated to the Orillia Collegiate Institute and the Orillia Armoury, and the Orillia Public Library received Baxter’s second place model. e model submitted by Emanuel Hahn is held in private hands. Only the controversial bronze statue of Champlain comprising part of March’s entry remains, and it is located in the Orillia Public Library. e disposition of the twenty-second model is unknown. Baxter’s model was destroyed during library renovations at some point aer the Second World War. For a list of the sculp- tors, their addresses, the disposition of the models, and the number of cases required to pack each entry, see “List of Models for Champlain Monument,” Undated, Folder Champlain Monument Unveiling, File Orilliana, Orillia Public Library. 17 “Monument to Samuel de Champlain,” Undated, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1913-1914.

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outset of the competition, Sir Edmund March’s violation of the published rules Walker, who had himself previously com- in oering his bronze of Champlain and missioned works from the March family,18 expressed to the chair of the adjudication identied March as a sculptor who should panel his hope that “justice may be done be specically encouraged to submit an to all those who have made considerable entry, and March “eagerly accepted” the sacrice in a serious endeavour to supply, invitation;19 the only other sculptor in- in conformity with your rules and sugges- vited appears to have been Sir Walter tions, a model satisfactory to the Judges Allward, who declined to participate. appointed.” 21 Toronto sculptor A.J. Clark March also contacted Hale about submit- issued the most damning indictment of ting the statue of Champlain in his pro- the monument selection process through posed design in metal in direct violation a printed pamphlet that emphasized the of the published rules of the competition unfair advantages granted to March and that all models consist entirely of plaster. the dominance of Walker in the selection Walker personally approved March’s re- process. “I contend,” Clark concluded, quest despite being a member of the jury “that the entire competition was a farce,” vetting the models, thereby guaranteeing and he called for the federal government that the mandated anonymity of the en- to reconsider its decision to vote public tries would be compromised. funds for the Orillia monument.22 All of Private and public complaints about these protests fell on deaf ears. Walker the competition process subsequently brusquely informed Hale that the selec- reached the Champlain tercentenary com- tion process could not be challenged and mittee. “It is to be regretted that the work that the committee had deemed every of the Statue was not placed in Canadian other entry apart from March’s to be “un- hands,” Hamilton MacCarthy informed suitable.”23 Furthermore, Eric Brown, the Hale, since “visitors from abroad would Director of the National Gallery of Cana- prefer seeing the products of Canadian art- da and a member of the judging commit- ists rather than European importations.”20 tee, supported Walker’s position despite French sculptor Maurice Favre protested March’s “technical disqualication.” Favre,

18 Sidney March to Walker, 14 October 1914, Sir Edmund Walker Papers [hereaer EWP], omas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Box 12, File Oct 14-23/1914. 19 Hale, Reminiscences of Charles Harold Hale, 24. 20 MacCarthy to Hale, 18 October 1914, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1913-1914. 21 Favre to Clark, 13 October 1914, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1913-1914. Favre had traveled to Orillia for the announcement of the competition re- sults and engaged in a series of sharp personal and written confrontations with Sir Edmund Walker. 22 “Statement of the Unfair Competition for the Champlain Monument at Orillia, Ontario, to which Government Grants Were Made,” 1 February 1915, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monu- ment Orillia, Correspondence, 1915. 23 Walker to Hale, 21 October 1915, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Oril- lia, Correspondence, 1913-1914.

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in Brown’s viewpoint, had the least cred- serve as inspiration to men and women ibility in pursuing his grievances, since his seeking to protect Canada from Prussian own model was “not made to scale and it imperialism. “Champlain, you may sleep as obviously violates the conditions with in your grave,” Decarie declared, “but its coloured owers, sawdust, gravel, and your descendants will invoke your ghost, painted background far more than that of not to frighten but to fortify, to virilise Mr. March.”24 courage, to strengthen energies, to give e growing intensity of the First younger generations the example of self- World War quickly rendered this bick- denial for the sake of common interests, ering irrelevant. e tercentenary com- the example of far-reaching patriotism.”26 mittee decided in January 1915 that the e tercentenary committee raised more planned August 1915 unveiling celebra- than $15,000 in pledges from this event tion would be postponed. In the back of and used it to purchase machine guns, a the committee members’ minds, Hale eld kitchen, and ambulances for the Ca- reported, “is a feeling of apprehension nadian Expeditionary Force. arising out of the fact that so many of In England, March proved unable to our young men have le for the front, extricate himself from national service and that consequently some of our best commitments and commence work on families may be in no mood for ‘celebrat- the Champlain monument during the ing’ next August.”25 On 17 August 1915, First World War once he had been for- therefore, a scaled-back celebration of the mally contracted to undertake the project three-hundredth anniversary of Cham- in 1916. Sir Edmund Walker appealed di- plain’s arrival in Orillia occurred with rectly to J.W. Wheeler-Bennett, March’s the placing of a tablet at the bridge over district deferment ocer, in November the Narrows linking Lake Couchiching 1916 to secure the sculptor’s release from and Lake Simcoe in the aernoon and a essential war work with the Royal Flying municipal celebration in the evening that Corps. But Walker’s pleas fell on deaf turned into a patriotic rally. A.L. Decar- ears. “If I were to get him back into his ie, the Provincial Secretary of uebec, foundry,” Wheeler-Bennett explained, delivered the primary oration, ignoring “he would have to secure labour to assist any mention of Champlain’s interac- him and there would be a good deal of tion with the Hurons and emphasizing unpleasant criticism in the district on ac- instead that the dicult nature of the count of the labour trouble.”27 Although French explorer’s time in Huronia should March obtained a temporary release from

24 Ibid., Brown to Hale, 19 October 1914. 25 Hale to Fraser, 20 January 1915, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1915. 26 “Orillia’s 300th Birthday,” Orillia Packet, 19 August 1915. 27 Wheeler-Bennett to Walker, 8 December 1916, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1916-1918.

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war work in 1917 because of ill health, he providing representations of historical g- quickly resumed his national service po- ures involved in March’s design: sition and informed Hale in March 1918 We have been able to nd no trustworthy that “I have not been able to carry out information regarding the appearance of my intentions with regard to the statue Champlain. ere seems to be nothing of Champlain and have not been able to available in the way of portraits of the Jesuit get anything done that would be worth- missionaries except an idealized plate pub- while.”28 e end of the war in November lished in 1664 and the bust of Brébeuf in the Seminary at uebec. ere is a considerable 1918 nally allowed March to devote his amount of information, not all of which is full attention to the Champlain com- consistent, regarding the personal appear- mission. “I commenced work on the ance of the Huron Indians. e most impor- Champlain memorial on the 14th of this tant source is, of course, the Jesuit Relations, month,” he informed Hale days aer the and a careful examination might discover Armistice,” and I can see no reason why further passages than those I am sending giv- the progress of the work should not con- ing additional items of interest. I am inclined tinue without further interruption.”29 to think, however, that I am sending all of rst-rate importance.31 e Design of the Champlain Despite these reservations, Sir Edmund Walker believed that March’s sculptures Monument would be “free from all possibility of arch—who had originally hoped historical error” if he used this historical Mto sculpt the monument in Cana- material in an eective manner.32 da30—prepared his early mock-ups of the Kenney’s thirty-item catalogue of main statue of Champlain and the two evidence certainly would have allowed side panels (which were now also to be March to obtain a reasonable picture of cast in bronze) based on an extensive pack- the human features of European explor- age of historical exhibits compiled during ers in Huronia while oering more am- the war by James Kenney, the Director of biguous representations of the region’s Historical Research at the Public Archives Huron population during the early-sev- of Canada. Kenney noted the diculty of enteenth century. Kenney acknowledged

28 Ibid., March to Hale, 31 March 1918. 29 Ibid., March to Hale, 20 November 1918. 30 March to Walker, 25 May 1915, EWP, Box 61, File Champlain Tercentenary Celebration. Among the reasons given by March for working in Canada was that it was “the only possible way of getting a na- tive Indian to sit for me.” 31 Kenney to Walker, 10 May 1916, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1916-1918. Kenney mistakenly identies the Jesuits as accompanying Champlain in his travels through Huronia instead of the Recollects. e Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf did not arrive in Huronia until 1626 and served until his martyrdom there at the hands of the Iroquois in 1649. 32 Walker to Hale, 14 February 1917, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Oril- lia, Correspondence, 1916-1918.

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the historical consensus that a true like- May 1919, he forwarded six photo- ness of Champlain did not exist,33 but he graphs—that unfortunately cannot be lo- provided numerous examples of popular cated34—to Walker of the “Christianity” portrayals of the French explorer, most and “Commerce” panels and outlined ad- notably the 1870 portrait by éophile ditional sources he used to compose the Hamel. Photographs of multiple por- models. “I have varied slightly the fashion traits and busts of Brébeuf and Father of weaving the hair of the four ‘Hurons,’” Isaac Jogues, who were martyred by the March noted, based on descriptions Mohawks in the 1640s, clearly served found in the Jesuit Relations, and “the as inspiration for March’s depictions ornamentation of the ‘Huron’ garments of the Recollect gure—Joseph Le Ca- etc. I have taken from specimens in the ron, one of Champlain’s companions in British Museum.” e chief modica- 1615—in the “Christianity” panel of tion to the coureur de bois gure in the the Champlain monument design. Nu- “Commerce” group resulted in a change merous exhibits of Hurons provided by of dress to feature “a loose shirt open at Kenney, however, seemingly failed to the collar, leather trousers supported by a provide accurate depiction that matched belt, [and] in his right hand is a gun and the remarkably detailed physical features thrown loosely over his le arm is a Bear evident in March’s nal side panel sculp- skin.” Furthermore, the roll of skins de- tures. In addition to written descriptions picted in the original plaster model had of Huron appearance found in Cham- been replaced by at skins spread across plain’s travel accounts, Kenney included the knees of the two Hurons. “I think,” multiple images contained in the 1619 March informed Walker, “I have ob- edition of Champlain’s Voyages, the ti- tained more unity in the lines of the com- tle page of Gabriel Sagard’s Le Grand position by this alteration.”35 e only Voyage du Pays des Hurons, and various substantive alteration to the Recollect illustrations from Joseph-François La- missionary in the “Christianity” panel re- tau’s Mœurs des Sauvages Amériquains. sulted in the placement of the crucix in No photographs of modern Aboriginal the priest’s hand at a higher level. Walker populations seem to have been provided did not examine these photographs until to March at this stage. September 1919 aer he returned from a Armed with this historical informa- trip to Asia. “ e Indians,” he informed tion, March worked quickly to produce Charles Hale, “are very nely modeled, scale models of the side groupings. In but in the case of Jean de Brebeuf the

33 For an overview of the historical representations of Champlain’s likeness, see Denis Martin, “Dis- covering the Face of Samuel de Champlain,” in Litalien and Vaugeois, eds., Champlain: e Birth of French America, 354-63. 34 ese photographs are found in Box 14 of the Sir Edmund Walker Papers. 35 March to Walker, 9 May 1919, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1919-1921.

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white man is made Instead, the Hurons so physically small as “seem to have been in to be noticeable, and the habit of removing to somewhat destroy the hair all around the composition.”36 the head and of leav- Walker and Hale sub- ing only a circular tu sequently agreed that to grow to full length the photographs of around the middle of the side panels would the head.” Apart from be submitted to rec- the physical features ognized experts for of the Hurons, Bar- proper evaluation. beau wrote that “the e expert re- costume is also drawn sponses received from imagination. were hardly encour- No trousers were aging. C.M. Barbeau, known to the Ameri- who worked in the can natives … [and] Anthropological the decorative pat- Figure 2—Original Clay Sculpture of Cham- Branch of the Geo- plain. [Source: Sir Edmund Walker Papers, Box terns on the trousers logical Survey of 61, File Champlain Tercentenary Celebration] are also unrealistic. Canada, commented e tomahawk could that March “shows no real knowledge of not be accepted by those who know the the Huron Indians” and that “the features weapon.” Although Barbeau believed and costume might be those of Algerians that March possessed “talent and abil- or Mediterranean folk rather than of Na- ity,” he concluded that “I do not nd that tive Americans.” In terms of the features of he has at all succeeded in bridging the the Hurons, Barbeau emphasized that “I chasm which separates him from his sub- cannot recognize anything Huron-like or ject.”37 A second, less detailed review pro- even Indian” in the “Christianity” panel. vided by William Smith, the Secretary of “Instead of a long pointed chin, thin lips, the Publication Board within the Public aquiline nose with a low tip,” he claimed, Archives of Canada, noted that March’s “the Hurons had a markedly receding depiction of the Hurons wearing moc- chin, usually thick lips—specially the casins in the summertime was incorrect, lower lip—, and oen a broad spatulate- while the stone hatchet portrayed in the like nose at the tip.” Barbeau also noted models “had been abandoned very early” that the full head of woven hair for the in favour of French iron hatchets.38 Hurons in March’s model was inaccurate. While March’s side group mod-

36 Ibid., Walker to Hale, 10 September 1919 37 Ibid., Barbeau to Smith, 16 November 1919. 38 Ibid., Smith to Hale, 13 December 1919.

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els were being evaluated, he continued uebec City, a “deeply learned” special- working on the main statue of Cham- ist of New France who would have the plain. In September 1919, he informed advantage of comparing March’s design his Canadian benefactors that the work with the Champlain statue erected in the was “progressing satisfactorily” but that uebec capital in 1898. O’Leary subse- it would not serve any useful purpose quently noted that the proposed Oril- to send photographs of the preliminary lia statue was “far more elaborate” than model “before it is in my opinion com- the uebec City monument, and he plete and nished from all views.”39 ree doubted whether Champlain “ever wore months later, March nally provided a such sumptuous raiment.” Nonetheless, picture (Figure 2) of the twelve-foot clay O’Leary believed that both representa- model of Champlain. e British sculp- tions of Champlain’s clothing “were of the tor noted that since “any alterations now period.”42 But these criticisms focusing on would entail a considerable amount of the dress in March’s proposed Champlain extra time and work for me,” he was not statue were countered by positive judg- seeking detailed critiques of the Cham- ments. Alexander Fraser, the Provincial plain model. Instead, he sought “ap- Archivist of Ontario, believed that the proval of the general arrangement of the depiction of Champlain “fullls the high costume, which is correct as far as I have expectations of what could come to us been able to ascertain in this Country.”40 from this distinguished artists” and that, Once again, Hale distributed the images as a result, Orillia would have “one of the provided by March for expert appraisal very nest gure monuments of Cana- concerning the historical accuracy of the da.” 43 e strongest support of March’s depiction of Champlain. model came from Sir Edmund Walker, In contrast to the uniformly negative who agreed strongly with Hale “there is appraisals of many details of March’s side not only no reason why the Orillia statue groupings, professional opinion on his should resemble that of uebec, but there model of the Champlain statue proved is a very good reason that it should not do to be mixed. William Smith bluntly in- so.” In Walker’s view, the statue at uebec formed Hale that “we have talked over appeared “altogether too much like a pol- the photograph of Champlain here, and ished gentleman for Champlain, and that there is a general disposition to criticize Mr. March has succeeded in producing a it.”41 Smith also sent the photographs of more rugged type.”44 the model to the Rev. P.M. O’Leary in Armed with these evaluations, Hale

39 Ibid., March to Hale, 9 September 1919. 40 Ibid., March to Hale, 6 December 1919. 41 Ibid., Smith to Hale, 22 January 1920. 42 Ibid., O’Leary to Smith, 23 January 1920. 43 Ibid., Fraser to Hale, 20 January 1920. 44 Ibid., Walker to Hale, 16 February 1920.

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duly informed March of the problems ment of the cloak over Champlain’s right raised by Canadian evaluators of the clay shoulder, but “aside from this the general models. In terms of the side panels, Hale verdict is that the statue is very ne, and emphasized that “from an artistic per- the committee is much gratied to nd spective, the groups are considered excel- that some of our leading art critics think lent,” but he noted the problems raised by we are going to have a statue that will be the assessors in terms of the dress, physi- a credit to all concerned.”46 cal features, and hair style of the Hurons March took these assessments of his displayed in the models and the presence work in stride and worked throughout of a stone tomahawk. Furthermore, Hale 1920 to nalize the models for the bronze stressed that “it is also felt that beside castings. “I am only too glad to have the the splendid physical proportions of the criticisms of the gures in my groups,” he Indians the gures of the white men ap- reported to Hale, “and I shall alter the de- pear rather insignicant.” is was espe- tails accordingly.” Correspondence relat- cially true “in the case of Brebeuf, which ing to the denitive endorsement of the scarcely gives the commanding impres- side panels is not extant, although March sion of whom Parkman describes as ‘bold promised that he would send Hale “pho- scion of a warlike race.’” Although Hale tographs of the groups incorporating the recognized that “an artist cannot be held corrected details.”47 Based on the nished down to historical detail too closely,” he bronze side panels, it appears March al- informed March that changes would be tered his models according to the exter- necessary to bring the depiction of the nal assessments; the four Hurons, for ex- gures “more into accord with the real- ample, are nearly naked in the unveiled ity,” and he forwarded to March all of monument instead of wearing trousers the documentation he had received from and moccasins in the early models. March the assessors.45 Hale then commented on sent pictures of the nished Champlain the Champlain model and the “very fa- gure in June 1920 indicating that “I vourable” reviews it had received, noting am most anxious to have your commit- that the Orillia tercentenary committee tee’s nal approval of the clay model.”48 did not take seriously the criticisms from A second round of evaluations returned those who compared March’s depiction unanimously positive opinions, with Al- of Champlain to the existing uebec exander Fraser noting that “the model City statue. Hale also forwarded an ad- has been very carefully and successfully ditional appraisal criticizing the arrange- worked out.”49 Aer receiving nal ap-

5 Hale to March, 16 January, 1920, EWP, Box 15, File July 1919-1921. 46 Hale to March, 19 February 1920, AO, CMC, Box 1, MU 528, File Champlain Monument Oril- lia, Correspondence, 1919-1921. 47 Ibid., March to Hale, 9 February 1920. 48 Ibid., March to Hale, 5 June 1920. 49 Ibid., Fraser to Hale, 26 June 1920.

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proval from the tercentenary commit- ings from March’s design as a cost-saving tee, March informed Hale on 9 October device. To accommodate March’s nan- 1920 that “I have nished the last piece of cial demands, Hale and Walker turned to the clay model of Champlain today and I the Ontario and federal governments for trust the last section of the plaster mould additional contributions, securing a sup- will be taken by the end of this year” to plementary $2,500 donation from each allow for the bronzes to be cast.50 source. Furthermore, the government of uebec—which the tercentenary com- e Unveiling of the mittee had deliberately not approached Champlain Monument in the rst round of subscriptions be- his promise of timely completing fore the First World War as a gesture of Tthe Champlain monument proved goodwill—received an appeal for fund- illusory. e issue of funding lay at the ing and contributed $5,000. Although heart of this delay that would last for the full details of March’s remuneration more than four years. Escalating metal are incomplete, it appears that he even- costs by the end of 1920 caused March to tually received nearly forty-percent more lament that “I cannot possibly carry out than the amount initially called for in his the contract of 1916 without great actual signed 1916 contract.54 loss to myself.”51 e Tercentenary Com- Despite the injection of funds into mittee initially held rm aer receiving the project, progress remained sluggish. March’s demands for additional funds. By January 1924, March reported that “ e terms of the contract are, of course, only the bronze of the Champlain gure explicit, both to price and delivery,” Hale had been completed, causing Orillia or- sternly informed March in April 1921, ganizers to again postpone the planned emphasizing that “it is quite out of the unveiling celebration scheduled for the question for us to increase the payment upcoming July. March did not assume full for your part of the work.”52 Aer being responsibility for these ongoing delays. counseled that abandoning the project Aer considerable debate, the tercente- would be a “national calamity,”53 howev- nary committee did not compose the nal er, Orillia organizers eventually retreated text of the monument inscription until from this hardline position, and they also early 1924. Furthermore, Walker’s sud- rejected a plan to eliminate the side group- den death in March 1924 removed one of

50 Ibid., March to Hale, 9 October 1920. e nal bronze of Champlain appears largely unchanged from the clay model shown in Figure 2—the only substantive (and historically curious) alteration seems to be the addition of spurs to the unveiled statue. 51 Ibid., March to Hale, 16 October 1920. 52 Ibid., Hale to March, 16 April 1921. 53 Ibid., Fraser to Hale, 13 August 1921. 54 A handwritten insertion for “Contingent Liabilities” in the amount of $7,500 appears in a typed ledger detailing payments to March. e value of funds paid out under the original contract was slightly less than $9,000. See “Summary—Champlain Tercentenary Fund,” 8 November 1924.

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Figure 3—C.H. Hale (l) and Vernon March in Front of the “Christianity” Panel, 1924. [Source: Orillia Public Library, File ‘Orilliana’]

group has now been cast successfully and we are making a great eort to complete the tting together and packing of this group before the end of the month along with the other bronzes.”55 By mid-May 1925, the bronzes had arrived in Orillia and March and his brother Sidney were also on-site to supervise construction. “It is really magnicent,” Hale enthused aer seeing the nished monument (see Figures 4-6); “I have never seen anything that impressed me so much both in its proportions and in its details.”56 e Orillia tercentenary committee carefully planned the monument’s un- veiling scheduled for 1 July 1925 based on a celebration of European explora- tion and, in particular, the promotion of good French/English relations—sen- the project’s driving forces from pushing timents expressed in the ocial monu- the construction schedule forward. Fi- ment inscription plaque embedded into nally, the stone plinth for the monument the plinth: had been sub-contracted to the Canadian 1615-1915 Benedict Stone Company of Montreal, Erected to commemorate the advent into and complex measurements required for Ontario of the white race, under the leader- the tting of the bronzes to this pedestal ship of Samuel de Champlain, the intrepid required a stream of trans-Atlantic corre- French explorer and colonizer, who, with een companions, arrived in these parts in spondence throughout 1924. Although the summer of 1615, and spent the following Hale visited March’s Farnborough foun- winter with the Indians, making his head- dry in the summer of 1924 (see Figure 3) quarters at Cahiagué, the chief village of the to expedite the process, it was not until Hurons, which was near this place. April 1925 that March informed Hale A symbol of good will between the French that “the last gure of the “Commerce” and English speaking people of Canada.

55 March to Hale, 1 April 1925, AO, CMC, Box 3, MU 530, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1925-28. 56 Ibid., Hale to Fraser, ? May 1925.

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Le: Figure 4—Champlain Monument, Front View. [Source: Orillia Public Library, “Souvenir Booklet of e Champlain Monument at Orillia”] Below le: Figure 5—Champlain Monument, “Chris- tianity” Side Group. [Source: Orillia Public Library, “Souvenir Booklet of e Champlain Monument at Orillia”] Below: Figure 6—Champlain Monument, “Commerce” Side Group. [Source: Orillia Public Library, “Souvenir Booklet of e Champlain Monument at Orillia”]

national monument” promoting the historical links between Ontario and uebec would “give distinction to the occasion and a avour that could not be imparted elsewhere.”57 Hale explicitly appealed to ethnic and linguistic unity in his personal invitation to Rodolphe In promoting the Bonne Entente, Hale Lemieux to serve as the keynote orator; believed that the unveiling of “a noble the Speaker of the House of Commons

57 Ibid., Hale to Fraser, ? January 1925. An Orillia delegation led by Mayor George McLean also toured uebec in the rst week of February 1925 promoting the Champlain monument unveiling.

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qualied for this honour “by your oce, and zeal with which those early teachers lineage, and record to exemplify and give were red, and in those of the listeners one expression to the unity of purpose and of reads the struggle of mind which preceded a sentiment which should characterize acceptance of the message. In a wonderful way the artist has contrasted the aesthetic the two great races that form the basis of force of the cultured missioner with the 58 Canadian nationality.” brute power of the savage.60 e ocial promotional pamphlet for the event celebrated Champlain’s Aer a luncheon for invited guests, exploits in overcoming—in the quoted the ocial program of the 1 July 1925 words of Francis Parkman—the “primi- unveiling of the Champlain monument tive barbarism” of the Hurons and re- in Orillia commenced at 1:30 with the quested the co-operation and attendance singing of national airs by 500 school- “of all who are desirous of promoting children in Couchiching Park, followed good relations between the two provinc- by a historical recreation of Champlain es, and between the races which people meeting the Huron Chief Darontal (Ati- ronta) in 1615. Organized by the Orillia them.” 59 Tellingly, Champlain’s reciprocal and mutually benecial relationship with Women’s Canadian Club and directed his Huron hosts in 1615-16 received no by Roy Mitchell, the former director of attention, and the Orillia committee the University of Toronto’s Hart House made no attempt to include First Nations eatre, the pageant featured a large con- participation with the exception of invit- tingent of adult and child performers— ing several Indigenous chiefs, including none, apparently, of Indigenous descent. Lorenzo Big Canoe of the Chippewas at e reenactment witnessed a canoe otil- Georgina Island and Ovide Sioui of the la of actors representing Champlain and Hurons at Lorette. e ocial souvenir his European colleagues accompanied booklet of the celebration also revealed by Hurons leaving Cedar Island in Lake the casual, unconscious prejudice dis- Couchiching and landing on the beach played in the monument, particularly in in Couchiching Park, where a Huron vil- the “Christianity” scene: lage had been constructed representing Chief Darontal’s capital at Cahiagué (see [T]he right hand group shows a robed priest Figures 7-10). e souvenir publication with uplied cross in one hand, and open eectively summarized the decidedly Eu- breviary in the other, while at his feet are seated two stalwart Indian braves into whose rocentric perspective on the pageant: ears the story of the Gospel is being poured. With over 250 men, women, and children in In the face of the priest is all the benevolence the costumes of aboriginal times, the scene

58 Ibid., Hale to Lemieux, 23 March 1925. Hale also extended a personal invitation to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, but King could not attend because of Parliamentary business. 59 “ e Champlain Monument,” undated, AO, CMC, Box 3, MU 530, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Misc. Papers, Pictures. 60 “An Appreciation of the Monument,” in “Souvenir Booklet of e Champlain Monument at Oril- lia,” Undated, Folder Champlain Monument, File Orilliana, Orillia Public Library.

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Top to Bottom: Figure 7—Non-Aboriginal Actors Pre- paring for the Tercentenary Historical Pageant. [Source: Orillia Public Library, File ‘Orilliana’] Figure 8—Commencing the Tercentenary Historical Pageant. C.H. Hale proided the following description on the back of this photograph: “ese are birchbark ca- noes and (white) Indians crossing om Cedar Island to Couchiching Beach Park in the historical pageant ‘e Landing of Champlain’ on the occasion of the uneiling of the Champlain monument on July 1, 1925.” [Source: Orillia Public Library, File ‘Orilliana’] Figure 9—Recreation of Champlain’s Party Meeting Chief Darontal during the Tercentenary Historical Pageant. [Source: Author Photograph of Parks Canada Marker, Couchiching Beach Park]

lacked nothing in the picturesque. ere were children playing, braves loang and gambling, and squaws busy at the work of the camp—cooking, grinding corn, tanning skins, or repairing canoes. Sometimes as they worked, the women took up an Indian mel- ody. From group to group it passed, strange, rhythmic, intense music, crooned in unison. Suddenly, Champlain and his ten compan- ions and Indian escort arrive in canoes, and the ring of a shot creates consternation among the women and children, followed later by curious inspection of their strange visitors. e Indians welcome their white allies with the festive “Adonwah” dance, in which the squaws croon the thrilling, vibrant melody, while the braves, having planted their ceremonial spears in a circle, dance round them in sti, jerky motions.61 e Dominion Day festivities closed at any function throughout the day—em- with an outdoor concert by the Anglo- phasized French/English harmony and Canadian Concert Band and a reworks a distinct sense of national identity re- display. Before these events, Rodolphe sulting from Champlain’s conquering of Lemieux’s aernoon unveiling oration the untamed wilderness. “Divine Provi- and the evening banquet speeches at the dence has willed it that the descendants Orillia Armories given by provincial of- of France and England should live side cials—Indigenous leaders did not speak by side over the vast territory explored

61 Ibid., “ e Unveiling Ceremonies.”

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Figure 10—Photo Collage of Tercen- tenary Historical Pageant. [Source: Orillia Public Library, Souvenir Booklet of e Champlain Monu- ment at Orillia”]

tion.” 62 At the banquet, Sir William Mulock, the Chief Justice of Ontario, identied the “two great currents of national life” that blended into a distinct Canadian character, with the Anglo-Saxon “wor- ship of material success” moderated by the inu- ence of French Canadians, who “still retain some of the leisurely virtues and cultivate the art of living.”63 Representing the uebec delegation, Edouard Fa- bre-Surveyor, a justice on the provincial Supreme Court, called for the Oril- lia monument to “perpetu-“perpetu ate not only the memory of Champlain, but the princi- ples of fraternity which he preached.” Furthermore, by Champlain,” Lemieux stressed to his he praised the eorts to promote har- rapt audience. “French and English,” he mony between English and French and continued, “have their respective quali- reminded his audience “that there are in ties and failings—but it is no vain boast this Canada of ours two founding races, to say that they belong to the most liberal speaking two languages, both equally and enlightened nations in the world, the proud of their traditions and literature… two nations which, from time immemo- and whose ambition is to preserve in its rial, have been at the vanguard of civiliza- entirety the inheritance received from

62 “Mr. Lemieux’s Oration at the Unveiling,” Orillia Packet, 2 July 1925. 63 “Contributions from Both Races Will Build Up a Strong Dominion,” Orillia Packet, 9 July 1925.

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their forefathers.”64 Elizabeth that it was “one of the nest ex- e Champlain monument celebra- amples of bronze statuary in Canada” in tion garnered wide praise. “It was the big- connection with the royal visit to Cou- gest day in the history of Orillia,”65 Hale chiching Beach Park in 1959.68 proclaimed, and press accounts chroni- cling the event appeared in national and e Legacy of the Champlain international outlets, including the New Monument York Times and e Times of London. A he contentious 1969 White Paper— detailed account in the latter paper, for Tthe “Statement of the Government example, described the “singularly com- of Canada on Indian Policy”—galvanized manding” statue of Champlain, noted the Indigenous opposition to federal policies “realistic and impressive” pageant “faith- aecting First Nations, and growing dis- ful to historical fact,” and stressed the ap- content about the legacy of colonialism peal “for cooperation between Ontario forced the reconsideration of the merits and uebec and the French and English of public monuments depicting Aborigi- speaking elements of the Dominion.”66 nals in the historical narrative of Cana- Vernon March proved equally eusive in da. e statue of Louis Riel installed on his praise of the occasion. Aer touring the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Western Canada, he informed Hale be- Building to mark the province’s cente- fore embarking for England that “I shall nary in 1970, for example, attracted con- never forget the wonderful reception you siderable opposition from Manitoba’s and the people of Orillia gave me, and I Métis community for its depiction of a shall always think of Orillia as the town conicted and naked Riel, resulting even- of happy memories!”67 In the decades fol- tually in the unveiling of a new statue in lowing the 1925 Dominion Day celebra- 1996 deemed more respectful in its por- tion, the Champlain monument stood as trayal of Riel and the banishment of the the major landmark used in the tourist original monument to a less-prominent promotion of the town and as a symbol, location.69 A similar campaign occurred along with Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine in Ottawa to move the bronze of the Sketches of a Little Town, of Orillia’s civic Anishinabe scout crouched deferentially pride, and Hale proudly informed ueen at the feet of the Champlain statue on

64 “Champlain Tercentenary Celebration Banquet: Brilliant Speeches by Distinguished Orators,” Orillia Packet, 9 July 1925. Stephen Leacock also spoke briey at the banquet in the delivery of a toast. 65 “Champlain Celebration a Wonderful Success,” Orillia Packet, 2 July 1925. 66 “Ontario Monument to Champlain,” e Times, 3 July 1925. 67 March to Hale, 22 July 1925, AO, CMC, Box 3, MU 530, File Champlain Monument Orillia, Correspondence, 1925-28. 68 Hale to Her Majesty ueen Elizabeth II, Undated (1959), File ‘C.H. Hale #60,’ Orillia Public Li- brary. 69 See Shannon Bower, “’Practical Results’: e Riel Statue Controversy at the Manitoba Legislative Building,” Manitoba History, 42 (2001-2002), 30-38.

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Nepean Point (the scout statue had been trader “oering useless trinkets for the added to the monument several years af- valuable furs.”71 Oldham subsequently ter the original unveiling in 1915). e formed a Unity Advisory Committee National Capital Commission prom- consisting of local Aboriginal and mu- ised in 1996 to remove the scout bronze nicipal ocials who draed the text of a to a new location, a transfer achieved in new descriptive plaque to be placed be- 1999. “Sensitivities change over time,” side the Champlain monument: Commission chairman Marcel Beaudry With the arrival of the French in North announced in dedicating the new site in America, both they and the Huron Confed- Major’s Hill Park, and he noted the NCC eracy recognized and welcomed the benets “is sensitive to, and supportive of, the ap- of equal trade and cultural alliances between propriate representation of the Aborigi- the two nations based on mutual trust and nal peoples.” Phil Fontaine, the National respect. Because of this historic partner- Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, ship the French gained strategic access and a warm welcome to the vast territories of celebrated the re-dedication of the scout Turtle Island beyond the lands of the Wen- statue as a reection of the strength of dat, while the Hurons became a signicant Indigenous communities and their place partner in what was to become a world-wide in Canadian society. “Above all,” he em- trading network based upon the fur trade phasized, “it is no longer at the feet of in beaver pelts. is monument, originally one inaccurately portrayed as a founder designed in 1915 but not completed until 70 1925, was re-dedicated on ______199_ to of this land.” 72 Similar eorts were undertaken to commemorate that historical alliance. correct the portrayal of the Hurons in Although the federal government im- the side panels of the Champlain monu- mediately promised to consult with the ment in Orillia. John Wesley Oldham, Unity Advisory Committee and “assist the Minister of the Rama United Church in meeting the target date of July 1, 1997, who appropriated the Indigenous name for the rewording of the plaque,”73 the Owl Man Dancing for himself, orches- initiative proved stillborn. e United trated this campaign. In a letter to the Church sacked Oldham in March 1999 editor of the Orillia Packet and Times, for insubordination and spiritual unor- Oldham noted that in both scenes “the thodoxy in the face of complaints from Indians are portrayed as subservient to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal pa- the overpowering Black Robe and the fur rishioners, depriving the plaque rededi- trader,” with the priest carrying a crucix cation movement in Orillia of its most “that looks more like a weapon” and the vocal advocate.74 Parks Canada admitted

70 “Native Statue Received Own Spot,” Ottawa Citizen, 2 October 1999. 71 “If Sculpted Today, What Would It Look Like?” Orillia Packet and Times, 26 July 1996. 72 Martel to McRae, 21 November 1996, File ‘Champlain Monument, Orilliana,’ Orillia Public Library. 73 Ibid., Copps to DeVillers, 24 March 1997. 74 “Clashing with the United Church,” National Post, 16 June 1999.

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in September 2000 that it had been neg- ligent in not following up with the Unity Advisory Committee in 1997 and prom- ised “to pick this up again.” But govern- ment ocials emphasized that draing a sensitively-worded plaque would be a “delicate undertaking” and that any new plaque “should be respectful of the monument itself.”75 In the event, Parks Canada again failed to broker an agree- ment about a second plaque, despite the persistent pleas from the leadership of the Mnjikaning First Nation in Rama that the positions of the Huron gures “reect a negative portrayal of Natives.”76 Repeated incidents of vandalism subse- quently plagued the Champlain monu- ment, the most notable occurring in 2006 when the faces of several of the Huron gures in the sculpture were spray-paint- ed white, and the plinth supporting the Champlain gure exhibited serious signs Figure 11—“e Meeting” uadricentenary Monument, of structural decay. Penetanguishene Harbour. [Source: Author Photograph] e quadricentennial celebrations of Champlain’s arrival in Huronia dem- Timothy Schmalz, of depicting Indig- onstrate the distinctly altered attitudes enous peoples as “gargoyles or in animal towards the material representation of ligree.”77 e impressive ten-foot bronze Indigenous populations in Canadian portrays Aenon providing a wampum history. Unveiled on 1 August 2015 in belt to Champlain as a sign of hospital- Penetanguishene, “ e Meeting” (Figure ity and harmony. Furthermore, the sculp- 11) portrays Champlain’s reception by ture incorporates both French and Abo- Chief Aenon of the Huron-Wendat’s Bear riginal cultural and spiritual imagery, tribe as a summit of two equals, break- with French symbols of the Holy Trinity ing the tradition, according to sculptor and images of explorers and missionaries

75 “Agency Admits Monument Gae,” Orillia Packet and Times, 14 September 2000. A Parks Canada descriptive plaque installed at some point before 1996 approximately twenty metres from the Champlain monument provides a moderately detailed historical overview of Champlain’s Huronia travels and the construction and unveiling of the monument. 76 “Monument May Be Brought Up to Date,” Orillia Packet and Times, 8 September 2001. 77 “A Tribute to Two Cultures—and eir Twin Spiritualities,” National Post, 3 August 2015.

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sharing equal prominence with the sym- the construction of an edice celebrating bols of agricultural abundance provided the tercentenary of Champlain’s travels by the ree Sisters and the depiction in the region. e First World War, fur- of the creation story of Turtle Island. thermore, provided civic boosters such Dedication speeches accompanying the as C.H. Hale with the fortuitous oppor- unveiling ceremony also diered sharply tunity to use the monument as a vehicle from those in Orillia in 1925. Jean Sioui, promoting harmony between francoph- a hereditary chief of the Huron-Wendat ones and anglophones and guarantee a Nation, emphasized the initial positive national and international audience for interaction between the French explorers its unveiling. e design of the monu- and Aboriginal tribes in Huronia while ment itself celebrating Champlain’s ex- noting the “dispossession of our land and ploits and emphasizing the benets of major epidemics” that followed. Provin- Christianity and commerce reinforced cial and federal politicians emphasized a popular idea of the ultimate progress the vibrancy of the francophone commu- of Western civilization and guaranteed nity established by Champlain, and Pre- its appeal within an audience that expe- mier Kathleen Wynne called for unity rienced a wave of economic growth and among all Ontarians to create a province prosperity and sought cultural reassur- “that celebrates its diversity as a source of ance aer the shock of the Great War. strength.”78 But the conuence of events that Public monuments are created by resulted in the universal acclaim for the political and social elites, Nancy Wood Champlain monument within the non- notes, “to select and organize representa- Indigenous community in the inter-war tions of the past so that these will be em- period also reinforces James Young’s as- braced by individuals as their own. If par- sertion that “a monument and its sig- ticular representations of the past have nicance are constructed in particular permeated the public domain,” Wood times and places, contingent on the po- emphasizes, “it is because they embody litical, historical, and aesthetic realities an intentionality—social, political, in- of the moment.”80 Many Orillians cur- stitutional, and so on—that promotes or rently maintain a strong sentimental at- authorizes their entry.”79 e case study of tachment to the Champlain monument Orillia’s Champlain monument provides while remaining largely ambivalent to- compelling evidence that government wards the original derogatory posture of and business ocials could harness a co- the monument’s Aboriginal gures. Nev- lonial perception of European explora- ertheless, the gradual public recognition tion in Huronia to rally wide support for of the negative legacy of colonialism af-

78 “Premier Pays Homage to Champlain,” Barrie Examiner, 1 August 2015. 79 Nancy Young, Vectors of Memory: Legacies of Trauma in Postwar Europe (Oxford: Berg, 1999), 2. 80 James Young, At Memory’s Edge: Aer-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architec- ture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 95.

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ter the Second World War and the rise of vironment, no celebration or public re- concerted activist campaigns within First membrance of the “advent into Ontario Nations communities opposing negative of the white race” is contemplated, and historical portrayals of Aboriginals have genuine eorts—however halting—are signicantly aected the modern per- being undertaken to provide a more ception of Vernon March’s portrayal of comprehensive and inclusive portrayal Champlain in Couchiching Beach Park. of Champlain’s sojourn in Huronia in In this altered political and cultural en- 1615-1616.

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