Essex Rotary’s Truth, Resilience, and Reconciliation event connects with Lunaapeew community

by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative

The message Sherry Huff wanted to spread as a special guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Essex's “Truth, Resilience, and Reconciliation: A Lunaapeew Perspective,” seminar was to have conversation, connect, and reach out with First Nations people and individuals one may not know in their community.

  The event took place on Tuesday, September 30, Canada’s Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

  Huff is of the Eelünaapéewi Lahkéewiit, a Lunaapeew community, formerly known as the Delaware Nation of Moraviantown, near Thamesville,

  “Break down those walls, build relationships. We all live here. This is all our home now, and I think it is really important to not allow these walls to come up between us. We are seeing the result of that around the world, and none of us want to go in that direction,” Huff said, who has a background in journalism and media.

  Around 60 individuals attended the connection event, where Huff and Lesley Snake, also a member of the Eelünaapéewi Lahkéewiit and has a background in social work, shared insight, history, personal stories, and a vision for connection.

  Part of the seminar focused on not just connecting with others, but reconnecting with one’s own heritage.

  Huff noted they were unaware their ancestors once inhabited Manhattan, a word from their own language meaning “where the hickories grow,” or “where we gather wood for our bows.”

  It is a name – a word – known around the world, but today, there is “One person who knew the language first before learning English. One left. And, she is busy working with the younger ones to teach them how to learn the language and teach them how to teach the language,” Huff said.

  She spoke of Manhattan having significance as a popular place today, often featured in films or referenced, but she had no idea it was home to her ancestors.

  “Growing up, we did not have the story about our origin. As a kid, I really didn’t think about it,” she said. “I thought, okay we are here when we were called Moraviantown, I am from Moraviantown. We didn’t learn any of this in school.”

  Their community and families didn’t teach the history, because many didn’t know “because of the disconnect that happened because of colonization and residential schools.

  “Kids were removed from their families, stories weren’t told, and then…people had to hide in order to kind of explore and learn about who they were. They had to hide in a forest to be able to speak the language and hear those stories,” Huff said, noting there was a disconnection happening over those years.

  When they took a trip to Europe to meet Moravian missionaries, she couldn’t believe they were still around and hosting missions.

  Huff, Snake, and many of their community took a trip to Manhattan about a decade ago to reconnect with the area.

  Huff said the experience was “pretty phenomenal.”

  As someone working in the media, she was able to get ahead of everyone to capture their reaction as they were getting off the bus.

  “People got off the bus and just kind of thought “wow, oh my gosh, we are home.”

  There was an immediate connection to the area.

  While there, they held a ceremony in the park, and have gone back to host ceremonies and honour ancestors who have gone on, “whose ashes are still there, below many, many layers of concrete.”

  For many, including Huff, they could still feel their ancestors there. She could see the landscape in her mind.

  “I never had that experience before,” she said.

  “It really is heartwarming for both Lesley and I to be invited to come and speak here today,” Huff said, noting she knew very little about the Rotary Club prior. Part of reconciliation is learning about neighbours, as well, and service groups that exist.

Huff said it seems like Rotary aligns with Lunaapeew values of goodwill and peace.

  Initially, Huff said, when the newcomers came, they tried to help. So, they helped them. “That was our way, our people are always kind,” she said.

  Being on the East Coast and their nature, they entered into relationships, symbolized by treaties, with the newcomers.

  However, the land in Manhattan was lost. She said the land was not sold as once claimed then. A letter written by a clerk back to Holland outlined they said they bought Manhattan for the equivalent of seven beaver pelts. To Huff, that just does not make sense.

  The relationship with the Moravian Missionaries, she explained, began in the 1600s.

  Some say the reason the Moravian Missionaries picked the Lunaapeew was because their language sounded similar to German.

  The Moravian Missionaries afforded the Lunaapeew people some protection at that time, Huff said. As the US was developing, there was a lot of chaos. They also learned the Lunaapeew language and wrote it down.

  “They did offer some benefits to us, but we had to become Christians,” she said.

  Between Manhattan, and where they are today, the Lunaapeew people built 30 different communities that were destroyed or had to be abandoned because they were not safe, Huff said.

  Originally, the Thamesville community was around 51,000 acres in size, Huff said. It was granted to them by the British as thanks for their loyalty. Today, it is down to 3,000 acres.

  During the presentation, Snake spoke of laughter being what kept Lunaapeew people alive all these years, in her belief.

  Anyone who wants to visit their community for its Heritage Days October 16-19 are welcome. They also host a Powwow, also open to the public every Labour Day weekend.

  Rina Hyland, President of the Rotary Club of Essex, noted hosting the “Truth, Resilience, and Reconciliation: A Lunaapeew Perspective” event was in keeping with Rotary’s areas of focus which includes peacekeeping and conflict resolution.   

  Last year, they started a speaker’s series to incorporate the community a little more, which were opened up to the public, as well.

  “We thought this was a good community event to really build connections with everybody,” Hyland said.

  She was pleased with the turnout, and engagement of those who not only sat in the audience, but engaged during the seminar with asking questions, and thanked everyone for coming out and honouring Canada’s national day for Truth and Reconciliation.

  Rotary, she added, offers the Honouring Indigenous People (HIP) Youth to Youth program for youths that has an emphasis on relationship building.

  Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy attended with Councillors Kim Verbeek and Katie McGuire-Blais. Bondy thanked Essex Rotary for bringing an event like this to Essex.

  “As Canadians, it is essential to take time to create meaningful conversations about the effects of residential schools and to uphold our commitment to reconciliation,” Bondy said. “Although it will take generations to heal from the trauma, it is important that we come together to honour the survivors and to acknowledge the pain their families have carried for generations.”

  She urged everyone to build a better, more inclusive future.