According to the confederation of 1867, Canada is 158 years old today.
As I paddle my kayak around the island in the mornings, however, I am very aware of how much older the land actually is.
It's the rocks, mostly, that remind me. And also the words of the Land Acknowledgement I will read, as is the custom, at the opening service of Cognashene Community Church, this coming Sunday, (weather and God permitting). It begins like this.
"We would like to acknowledge and to honour the land and waters that we live on, and our relationship to Indigenous peoples. We do this because we desire to share a place that is just and equitable, and because we recognize and respect Indigenous peoples' prior and continued claims to the land, and to our share responsibility for caring for the land, water, and our relationships."
I am also reminded of how predated Canada's origins are by the copy of the bill of sale made out to Ken's Grandfather Albert Liborius Breithaupt, all written out in beautiful calligraphy, of the land on which our own cottage sits.
And this phrase in small print, that you can't really see in the picture, that acknowledge this land was set apart for the use of the (actual words) 'Chippewa Indians of the Huron and Simcoe', and suggest the sale of this property will somehow benefit (actual words) the 'said Indians.' And I wonder if that was actually true.
I hope so.
As I paddle I imagine others doing the same, but much longer than 158 years ago. And I feel the need to bring all of this into my Canada Day reflections. Feeling all Canadian even though I am a descendant of settlers from England. Feeling humbled by that. With all due respect.
Feeling a new sense of this, somehow, with the bitter aftertaste of recent remarks from someone calling us the '51st State,' and how violating that is, to even suggest we'd just relinquish our land like that.
How ironic, I think, as I paddle around an island much older than 158 years.
I am sad and humbled to realize I can't go back and undo the harm.
But I am hopeful, and even defiantly proud to believe I can be part of building a vibrant future together, all of us, those who just got here 158 years ago, and those who've been here all along.
Happy Canada Day to all of us!
