Today, on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, I visited one of the most beautiful and peaceful settings within the city: the Bruce Pit off-leash dog park. Though I no longer have a dog (RIP Freddie), I still love to walk among the trees and to meet the many dogs and their owners that frequent the site.

Today, I found myself thinking about life many years ago, when the only people walking the woods in and around Bruce Pit were Indigenous ancestors. That took me back to a recent visit to the Nepean Museum. Bruce Pit is located in what was once the City of Nepean, before its amalgamation into the City of Ottawa.

The Nepean Museum notes:

Nepean forms part of the Anishinabewaki, the traditional territory of the Algonquin nation. For millennia, this region's rivers shaped its geography and culture.

Known collectively as Kichi Sibi Anishnabeg—"People of the Great River"—the Algonquin peoples are this region's First Peoples. They have inhabited the Ottawa Valley since time immemorial. For at least 10,000 years, they have travelled, traded, and harvested along the Ottawa River and its tributaries.

It continues:

When France claimed eastern Canada in the early 1600s, Nepean's land nominally became part of New France. In 1610, Étienne Brûlé—sent as part of a cultural exchange—was the first European to pass through Nepean. Samuel de Champlain followed in 1613. He was on a mission to cement alliances with the Algonquin and Huron-Wendat peoples. Still, no European settled permanently in Nepean until the early 1800s. The Ottawa River remained the major route into the North American interior until construction of the St. Lawrence Canals.

Despite over four centuries of European presence, and two centuries of permanent European settlement, this land remains the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin nation.

Each year, on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, I try to learn a little more about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada. My research this year led me to a June 2024 news release from the Government of Canada coming from "Ottawa, unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation, Ontario." The news release announced "a landmark agreement for the construction of a dedicated Algonquin space as part of Canada’s commitment to establish a national space for Indigenous Peoples within the Parliamentary Precinct." Grand Chief Savanna McGregor, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, said: "For our Anishinabe Algonquin Nation members to see us acquire our own space in the heart of our territory means everything."