Recalling the Big Heart ceremony in Melancthon

By Cindy Hillard AWARE News Network November 29 2012 

After my son and I attended the “Big Heart” ceremony to start the encampment to stop the Mega Quarry I was so moved by my experience that day that I went home and wrote it all down so that I wouldn’t forget it. It seems to be appropriate to share it now that Highlands Company has withdrawn their application.

My son Luke and I were very fortunate today to witness a very significant piece of history.  As members of AWARE Simcoe, we were invited to attend a First Nations Ceremony (Kiki Chide – Big Heart) to start the encampment to stop the Mega Quarry in Melancthon Township.

My son and I feel honoured to have attended.

The setting for this ceremony was at a private home near the site of the proposed mega quarry. The property is beautiful. Rolling hills, filled with huge mature beech and cedar trees. The driveway winds down slowly and carefully to Mulmur Lake, an ancient glacial lake.  The First Nations ceremony is to honour the water below this land.  First Nations people have not stood on these grounds for many years. It is a ceremony most necessary, to start healing the waters in this area.

Most striking to me was the diverse group of people who gathered there today.

As we drove in the long winding drive, the first visual encounter was a cowboy standing beside his horse. The horse had painted blue hand prints tastefully placed on his flank and shoulder. The cowboy was fully dressed in chaps, shirt, and hat.  I had to wonder….what was a cowboy doing at a First Nations Ceremony? I headed over to speak with him as soon as I got out of the car.  He is a horse rancher who lives nearby. He has painted his horse as the First Nations people did in order to welcome them.  He knows they have come to help protect this land.

As people started gathering, there was an unspoken awkwardness to it all. The groundskeeper’s home was twice the size of my own, and the property owner’s home was three times the size of that, but both were placed so carefully behind Mother Nature’s natural screening that neither were noticeable even though we were very close.

We were invited to set up our chairs around a circular metal horse corral. This was where the well-meaning home-owners wished the ceremony to be held.  As we set up our chairs, the fence instantly became a visual barrier representing the sad history that separates white people from First Nations. Nothing was said, and we politely placed our chairs there.  When the First Nations people arrived, they asked to change the site of the ceremony. With relief, we moved away from the fence, therefore bringing us closer together, and literally breaking down barriers without speaking.

The ceremony began. I was a willing and alert listener, hoping to learn all I could. There were descriptions of the First Nation’s teachings in detail to help us all feel a little closer, and more connected to the Earth. There were songs. The speakers took turns telling us their customs and performing their sacred water ceremonies. When they were done, they invited others to speak or sing. The diversity of speakers was intriguing. 

An East Indian woman (who runs sweat lodges for women in Arizona) sang the Universal Water Song, and left coloured ribbons (each carrying herbs in them) tied to the ancient cedar tree nearby. These are gifts for the Earth, and they will remain there in Mother Nature’s care.

A Guatamalan woman attended to bring attention to the struggle with the Canadian mining companies devastating her country and polluting the water there.

A Mayan woman attended to invite us to a woman’s ceremony which would be held later this evening in downtown Toronto.

A First Nation’s couple attended. He spoke of his devotion and love and respect for his partner. She had walked for 5 days carrying the water in a sacred ceremony held a few weeks earlier.

Two Christian ministers spoke. They spoke of “unity” not “uniformity”. They spoke of people “walking between cultures”. They spoke of God and they accepted everyone’s version of who or what God is. They spoke of Buddhist sayings. And they welcomed everyone, and asked us to celebrate our diversity and uniqueness. For me, this represented the beginning of the end of the separate religious institutions and the formation of one unified spiritual fulfillment. The same spirit, just different words. Words cannot describe spirit. There is no right way to explain spirit, because spirit is indescribable.

And then, a surprise! An elderly white gentleman wearing what could best be described as an African safari suit (Cowboy type hat, with beige shirt and shorts), stood up to tell us he would like to sing for us. He began to dance and sing in a traditional First Nations style that shocked most of us. He closed his eyes and put his heart and soul into it. He sang loudly and forcefully and he played his Native drum and danced as he sang. At times he was just grunting, and other times his voice echoed over the hills, and instantly his appearance faded, and his voice took over. As I closed my eyes and listened I envisioned a First Nations dancer in full regalia, head dress and all. It was like he was the white man and First Nations people unified and embodied in one being.

When the ceremonies ended, we ate together, we talked, and we laughed. We gave each other hope for the world in her devastation. We talked of working together to help her heal.

Many different cultures converged there in one place, and all were definately united. The First Nations, the cowboys, the white men and women, the Mayans, the Guatamalans, the gays, the heterosexuals, the Christian Church ministers, the young, the old, the wealthy, the poor; we all gathered there today, united, to take a stand, together, to support each other. We are all dedicated to stopping the devastation created by our current North American consumer society, and healing Mother Earth.

This small group of about 130 people gathered here made history today. A very significant day in the history of the world.

This group moved on to create Foodstock and Soupstock; fundraisers to help stop the mega quarry. Events that brought farmers and top Toronto chefs together to mobilize the citizens of Toronto to take a stand against corporate madness and protect the water and the land.

November 2012:  The Highland Companies withdrew their application for the proposed Mega Quarry.  

It is without a doubt, that the Mega Quarry was stopped because we were united in spirit. All of us working together, as one, toward a common goal. 

This is only the beginning.

Cindy Hillard represents Severn Township on the AWARE Simco board.