Cambrian College creates a sacred place

With smoke curling up into the rafters of the newly constructed sacred fire arbour on Cambrian College's campus, Logan Bobiwash adjusts the wood on a fire, making sure it's burning neatly.

The 19-year-old comes from the Cutler First Nation near Elliot Lake, and said he's familiar with the task of caring for sacred fires.

Fire is considered sacred in Aboriginal culture because it's essential to life, giving people the ability to stay warm and cook their food.

Technically, Bobiwash said, sacred fires are supposed to burn for three days, but for the purposes of the May 16 awakening ceremony celebrating the construction of the arbour, he just tended the fire for a few hours.

“Basically it's showing what it's all about,” Bobiwash said.

The arbour, which cost about $55,000, was paid for through fundraising and money provided by Cambrian, said the college's president, Sylvia Barnard.

Constructed by Coyote Log Homes of Barry's Bay, Ont. out of massive pine logs, it resembles a large gazebo. The metal roofing is red, white, yellow and black, representing all of the world's races.

During the ceremony, the 50 people in attendance were all given a chance to say a few words about the importance of the arbour. An Aboriginal drum group also performed at the event.

Barnard said there are at least 800 students at the college self-identify as being Aboriginal, but she estimates there's actually double that.

Some of these students come from small, remote communities, and aren't able to go home very often, she said.

“They become very homesick,” Barnard said.

“It's great they're able to connect in a place like this that helps them to stay connected with their culture, but also to connect to others on campus, and form support for each other.”

It was Kelly Senecal, Cambrian's Aboriginal cultural facilitator, who came up with the idea for the arbour. Having a place to build sacred fires is important because they “bring unity to a community,” he said.

“Our vision was to have an arbour, and a beautiful one,” Senecal said. “My vision was that it had to be unique, and it had to be awesome, so that when people see it, they say 'That's something that is First Nations.'”

He said the white pine logs with which the structure is built represent the large trees which used to grow in the Sudbury area before they were wiped out 100 years ago through a combination of logging and mining activities.

“It's really nice to see massive logs represented here in Sudbury again,” Senecal said.

He said he'd like to see the structure used not only for Aboriginal ceremonies, but for activities by people of all different cultures.

“As long as I'm the cultural facilitator here, this place will be used all the time,” Senecal said.