First Nations activists have vowed to end a five-day-old campout on a piece of a west-end Toronto park Wednesday after the city installed a fence around the site to keep out BMX bikers.
They say the area, a bowl surrounded by ridges near the southeast corner of High Park, is an ancient aboriginal burial mound. It has also attracted BMX enthusiasts, however, who have cut trails and sculpted the bare earth into a series of jumps and obstacles over the years.
Although the city flatly rejects aboriginal claims about the site’s history – an archeological study found no evidence of graves – parks staff are hoping to restore the area to its natural shape and replant it with grasses and plants. They agreed to let the activists do some of the work, supplying them with tools and a shed.
They started working Friday, using shovels and wheel-barrows to dismantle jumps and level the ground. They have been camping out near the works.
On Tuesday afternoon, city staff set up a temporary fence with a locked gate around the area; they will install a more permanent one in a couple of weeks. The activists said the barrier should be enough to keep bikers out while the work proceeds and said they will strike camp Wednesday.
The city has given them a key so they can return during the days to keep working on the site.
“We have taken down several of the bicycle jumps at this point, but we still have weeks of work to do,” said Harrison Friesen, one of the activists.
He said BMX enthusiasts had visited the area since the First Nations group began their work, but that things had not been particularly tense.
“We’ve been very diplomatic – we’re here as peacekeepers,” he said. “We’ve been educating people and the bikers.”
High Park has long been believed to have historical significance for First Nations people. One group claims to have found an arrowhead and possible bone fragments at the site that was occupied last week, which they refer to as “Snake Mound.”
In 2009, the city ordered a more extensive archeological study on it, including test digs to search for artifacts, but could find none.
“We do not recognize it as burial ground nor is it recognized by authoritative experts as such,” said Margaret Dougherty, a city spokeswoman. She said the province last year also accepted the city’s conclusions.
Another area, called “Bear Mound” or “Hawk Hill,” near the centre of the park, was registered with the province as an archeological site in 2003 by an archeological consulting company. However, a consultant’s report prepared for the city later noted that no evidence had been offered to suggest the hill was anything more than a natural geological formation and referred to its registration with the province as “spurious.”
Despite this, city staff have no problem with aboriginal groups helping dismantle the BMX ramps, which were not sanctioned by the city, as community organizations often help the city with park cleanups and other such activities.
“We are bit surprised at it being described as an occupation,” Ms. Dougherty said. “It just wasn’t that at all.”
The city’s work on the site should be completed by July.