St. John's ceremony puts spotlight on Shanawdithit for Indigenous Peoples Day - Action News
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St. John's ceremony puts spotlight on Shanawdithit for Indigenous Peoples Day

Dozens of activists gathered in a St. John's park early Thursday morning to welcome summer, celebrate Indigenous culture and call for a local statue to honour the last member of the Beothuk.
Tobacco was placed as a sign of respect on the monument to Shanawdithit during a brief ceremony Thursday in St. John's. (Peter Cowan/CBC)

Dozens of activists gathered in a St. John's park early Thursday morning to welcome summer, celebrate Indigenous culture and call for a local statue to honour the last member of the Beothuk.

In a brief ceremony at Bannerman Park in downtown St. John's, participants formeda circle around a square monument that was built years ago to mark the death in 1829 of Shanawdithit, who related much of what is known about the Beothuk.

Activists have been campaigning for a statue to be built in St. John's to honour Shanawdithit and have noted that the city is filled with prominent monuments to European explorers like John Cabot and Gaspar Corte-Real.

St. John's celebrates National Indigenous Peoples day

6 years ago
Duration 0:41
Dozens of activists gathered in a St. John's park early Thursday morning to welcome summer and celebrate Indigenous culture

Shanawdithitdied in St. John's at 28, after contracting tuberculosis. She is buried on the south side of St. John's harbour. A small plaque is erected near a water treatmentfacility.

A statue of Shanawdithit was unveiled 18 years ago in Boyd's Cove, a central Newfoundland community that is known to have been frequently used by the Beothuk.

During Thursday's brief ceremony, participants laid tobacco as a sign of respect on the monument ot Shanawdithit, and listened to a speech by an elder as well asa poetry reading.

National Indigenous Peoples Day was marked Thursday morning at a ceremony in Bannerman Park, in downtown St. John's. (Peter Cowan/CBC)

Read more stories from CBCNewfoundland and Labrador

With files from Peter Cowan