The controversial statue of Ahuntsic, a famous figure in New France who gave his name to the northern district of Montreal, has once again been vandalized in the past few days. Something to revive the debate around this historical figure who has long been wrongly represented as an indigenous martyr in the collective imagination.
Many doubts still surround the legend of Ahuntsic, who died tragically in a canoe with the Récollet missionary Nicolas Viel in the waters of the Rivière des Prairies in 1625. At the time, it was believed that Ahuntsic was a young Huron convert to the Christianity that accompanied Brother Viel on his journey to evangelize the Aboriginal peoples. Besides, the word ahuntsic designates, in the Huron language, a small, lively and wriggling being.
To add to the myth, the Récollet Gabriel Sagard will spread the rumor in the years following the tragedy that his former companion and the young Ahuntsic were savagely killed by Aboriginal people who resisted Christianization, hoisting these characters to the rank of heroes in the novel. national for more than three centuries.
However, certain elements today tend to show that this version of the story is erroneous. Not only would the drowning of Nicolas Viel and Ahuntsic be accidental, but there has been consensus since the 1940s that the latter was not Huron, but French. Details that we did not know in 1903, when the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society inaugurated, near the church of La Visitation, two monuments to the glory of Nicolas Viel and Ahuntsic, who wears the traditional headdress. aboriginal on the statue in his likeness.
” [Même si on sait aujourd’hui qu’Ahuntsic n’était probablement pas un Autochtone], I find it sad to attack this statue. It still represents the marriage of our French ancestors with the Aboriginal culture, ”laments Patrick Goulet, one of the churchwardens of the parish of La Visitation, after noting Sunday that the concrete structure had been the target of vandalism.
Racist sign
The damage is all in all quite minor, even if the statue was somewhat damaged, visibly by hammer or sledgehammer. We also smeared the passage on the commemorative plaque where we can read that Ahuntsic was killed by “wicked Hurons”.
In addition to misleading, this sign is described by many as racist. Ditto for the plaque found under the monument of Nicolas Viel, on which the Hurons are described as “barbarians”. Regularly over the past few years, citizens have asked that these words be withdrawn. Some go even further and plead for the statue of Ahuntsic to be completely transformed so that he is no longer represented as an Aboriginal, but as a European.
Definitely need to add a new plaque to put everything into context. Because otherwise, there will be more vandalism.
“The Ministry of Culture and the Conservation Center do not want us to make changes to the sign, because the statue is located in the heart of the heritage site of Sault-au-Récollet. You have to leave everything as it is,” explains Patrick Goulet.
Sensitive to criticism, the parish factory still went so far as to hide the two commemorative plaques last summer. She finally backtracked a few weeks later, because citizens considered that we did not have to do the same. These plaques are also now part of history and bear witness to the way Aboriginal people were treated in the past, they said.
“We definitely need to add a new plaque to put everything into context. Because otherwise, there will be more vandalism. Right now, everyone is passing the buck. The City says that it is not up to it to act, because it is private land. And the factory says it has no money,” laments Jocelyn Duff, member of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville Historical Society.
This is not the first time that the Ahuntsic statue has been the target of vandals. In 1990, the year of the Oka crisis, it was also damaged only to be completely restored 20 years later thanks to donations from parishioners.
Ironically, the vandalism in 1990 was seen as a racist act against Aboriginal people in the very tense political context of the time. Today, it is rather the monument itself that is seen as such. That said, it is unknown who attacked the structure in this way. The factory did not want to file a complaint with the police.