Niagara-on-the-Lake’s heritage sites were interpreted for visiting UNESCO guests in Niagara Geopark’s bid to gain a UNESCO Global Geopark designation for the Niagara Region.
Darren Platakis, founder of the registered educational charity, said that the group has been working on this project for the past ten years.
UNESCO evaluators, Jakob Walløe Hansen and Sarah Gatley, have been shuttled all over the Niagara Region, visiting 20 Geosites (areas that are part of a significant geological heritage of a region). Earlier this week the group landed in NOTL to visit the Voices of Freedom Park, Queenston Heights, and the Landscape of Nations.
At the Voices of Freedom Park, NOTL Museum Director and Curator, Sarah Kaufman, welcomed the delegation. Jan King-Watson, museum volunteer and walking tour guide, used the symbolism of park features as a springboard to tell the history of the Black community in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Often unnoticed by passers-by, King-Watson highlighted the inlay of two interlocking squares representing “Epa”, a West African interpretation of handcuffs, symbolizing both enslavement and captivity, and law and justice.
The delegation also learned that in 1837, Solomon Moseby stole his enslaver’s horse and escaped to Niagara, but because slavery had already been abolished in Canada, he couldn’t be returned to America. Instead, he was charged as a horse thief, resulting in “a big riot in town” of over 200 Black community members people, said King-Watson. Moseby escaped to England, later returning to live in Niagara.
“Our extradition laws today were founded on that case,” said King-Watson.
Museum Community Engagement Coordinator Barbara Worthy gave the group a guided tour of cultural and historical sites around NOTL.
Queenston Heights was another stop for the group. They were met by Rebecca Pascoe, Niagara Parks Manager of Cultural Development, and Steve Barnhart, Senior Director of Planning, Environment and Culture.
Pascoe explained that Queenston Heights Park encompasses over 50 acres. The land inside the stone walls of Brock’s Monument is federal land, whereas the rest of the park belongs to the Niagara Parks Commission.
This park is also the southern terminus point of the Bruce Trail, which winds northward over several hundred kilometres to Tobermory, passing through the Niagara Escarpment, a biosphere reserve recognized by UNESCO.
The original Brock's Monument was located several hundred metres south of its existing location. That one became structurally unsound after an activist for the Irish Republicans “rolled a big keg of gunpowder into the base of the monument and tried to blow it up,” said Pascoe.
Pascoe pointed out plaques commemorating the Black Militia Units and The Colored Corps, who served in the militia between 1812-1850 (the Colored Corp disbanded in 1815).
Tim Johnson, Niagara Parks Commission Senior Advisor, Heritage, Legacy and Indigenous Engagement, met the group at the Niagara Geosite of Landscape of Nations. He explained that this site “provides a lasting representation of Indigenous contributions here at the Battle of Queenston Heights, and also throughout the War of 1812.”
Tom Ridout, an artist and landscape architect from Toronto, designed both the Voices of Freedom Park and the Landscape of Nations, explained Johnson.
After pointing out the turtle inlaid into the ground at the entrance to the landmark, signifying Turtle Island, Johnson explained the significance of the statues of Indigenous leaders, John Norton, and John Brant, who led Six Nations fighters into the battle at Queenston Heights.
Johnson added that the large slabs of limestone used in the Landscape of Nations are actually made from the fossils of prehistoric creatures. The original shells of small marine animals can be seen in the shiny sides of the limestone.
A display of neatly organized red quartz pavers on one side, and blue quartz pavers on the other, disintegrate into a chaotic pattern in the middle, representing the battle of the British and allies (red) versus the United States and allies (blue).
Johnson finished the tour by bringing the delegation to the Tree of Peace, an easter white pine which is a symbol of the Haudenosaunee constitution known as The Great Law of Peace.
Walløe Hansen and Sarah Gatley spent the rest of the day at Niagara College before leaving for their respective homes of Denmark and Ireland,
They have two weeks to write detailed reports before passing them on to the UNESCO council by mid-August. Platakis and company will then await the council’s decision until some time in late spring, 2025.