{"id":6264,"date":"2025-02-11T12:22:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=6264"},"modified":"2025-02-11T12:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:22:52","slug":"a-vision-for-wilmot-2025","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/?page_id=6264","title":{"rendered":"A Vision for Wilmot – 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

A VISION FOR WILMOT<\/u><\/p>\n

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First, red paint was splashed in vehement anger over his head and torso. Then, the place where his feet had once rested was now filled by children\u2019s empty shoes. The soulful image of a now dead man was replaced with the soles of the imagined dead souls.<\/p>\n

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The truths that our predecessors have learned, we pass down from generation to generation. These stories portray the characters, the settings, the themes of wisdom that we (all of us) consider fundamental to our social cohesion.<\/p>\n

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Too often we do not hear the stories of others. We do not get to know enough about the figures who played significant roles in others\u2019 histories, of others\u2019 experiences. Too often, through ignorance of others\u2019 experiences others\u2019 stories, and others\u2019 values, we assume that it is our stories alone that bear the truths. It is easier to conclude that \u201cWe are right!\u201d<\/em>, and our self-centredness creates divisions among all of us.<\/p>\n

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Wilmot Township, just as probably all jurisdictions around the world, was ripe in 2020 for a clash of emotions resulting from a lack of understandings among diverse groups that have accumulated grievances over the history of our area.<\/p>\n

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The fact that the climax was evidenced by red paint and baby shoes led to the myopic assumption that Wilmot has an Indigenous issue \u2013 only. False. Paint could have been spread on other statues and used to draw attention to grievances of many other identifiable groups in Wilmot and beyond. It could have been an attempt to draw attention to a need to communicate more completely about past events involving Chinese, Jews, Irish, Muslims, Germans, Sikhs, French, etc. We have a \u201cfailure to communicate and learn from each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Indigenous authors have created a new genre in Canadian literature. Of the several I have read there is a common suggestion that stories need to be shared, feelings need to be acknowledged, strategies to become educated of others\u2019 \u201ctruths\u201d need to be created. My vison, below, is a suggestion \u201chow\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A previous municipal council voted unanimously to create a focal point to \u201csee\u201d our pasts through the images of Prime Ministers. The success of this educational opportunity was dependent upon the coexistence of an educational component to complement the statues. You see the statue you learn the context of events of that era.<\/p>\n

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The statues were intended to draw the interest of people, and the educational component would provide the opportunities for learning, for sharing of stories, and, potentially, for mutual understandings.<\/p>\n

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The Township failed to fulfill its contractual requirements. No educational component was ever provided. Divisions festered as a result. A myopic focus on \u201cIndigenous issues only\u201d appears to persist \u2013 even within the process used a second-time-around. I suggest that we expand our horizons.<\/p>\n

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I have a vision for Wilmot Township. It is a vision of how we might provide opportunities for increased mutual understandings among all of us \u2013 by talking and listening to each other through a revised project, a \u201cWalk Through Wilmot\u201d project. (Don\u2019t get hung-up on my title \u2013 it\u2019s just one way to expand the project.)<\/p>\n

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The PMP concept started in 2013. Twelve years have passed. There is no emergency, or even urgency to have a final product of a revised project concept ready for public presentation in totality.<\/p>\n

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My suggestions below can evolve over years as funds provide. But it needs to start with an approved concept by Wilmot\u2019s citizens and its Council.<\/p>\n

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  1. Create a fundraising foundation as an organization to raise money to support a charitable cause \u2013 an educational project that also has some life-sized statues.<\/li>\n
  2. Enlist Wilmot expertise to place skilled people on the foundation\u2019s board. (Volunteers are most affordable.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    • lawyer, real-estate broker, certified accountant, member of Createscape Waterloo, historian, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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      1. Decide whether it will be structured as a corporation or a trust foundation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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        • purpose is to advance education and cultural understandings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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          1. Solicit Wilmot citizens to \u201cname\u201d the project.<\/li>\n
          2. Register the foundation as a legal entity. (Incorporate)<\/li>\n
          3. Apply for charitable status to the Canada Revenue Agency.<\/li>\n
          4. Apply for a charitable tax number.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            My Personal Vision for next steps:<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Acquire a suitably-sized parcel of land in Wilmot, preferably in Baden and close to Castle Kilbride and the museum. (Charitable donations can leverage willingness to give by those with resources to donate.)<\/li>\n
            2. Consult with identifiable groups in Wilmot who have had predecessors with grievances (see starter list in paragraph 5 above)<\/li>\n
            3. Identify potential ways to expand the visitation \u2018sites\u2019 placed on the property:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              • Start with ice age (first peoples\u2019 arrivals, various origins stories)?<\/li>\n
              • Time sequential dioramas: small group of earliest arrivals, early housing (longhouse, etc.), early food acquisition (hunting, gathering, cultivating, etc.), Chinese labourers on CPR, Jews turned away at B.C. coast, individuals playing significant decision-making roles through our history, etc.<\/li>\n
              • Construct a \u201ccultural centre\u201d of suitable size to accommodate tour groups of 30 \u2013 40 tour bus riders.<\/li>\n
              • Cultural centre would have audio-visual displays that rotate on a schedule or can be \u201cbooked\u201d ahead of time by tour groups that make pre-paid reservations to visit.<\/li>\n
              • The A.V. \u2018presentations\u2019 scripts would be created by content experts such as universities, cultural \u2018experts\u2019 and converted to \u2018professional grade\u2019 product paid for through grants.<\/li>\n
              • Resource list \u2018hand-outs\u2019 with further reading suggestions.<\/li>\n
              • Visitors desk where reproductions of local visual and sculpture, carving artists are sold. Annual fund-raiser raffle of original art.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                  \n
                1. Create a communications strategy for promoting tourist visits to Wilmot\u2019s project site. Link to coordinate with Stratford Festival events.<\/li>\n
                2. Consider traffic routes and parking especially for tour buses.<\/li>\n
                3. Board of Trade plans long term for provision of support services required by tourists:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    \n
                  • food;<\/li>\n
                  • local transportation to Castle Kilbride and the museum (rickshaws pulled by university students in season?);<\/li>\n
                  • local historical buildings;<\/li>\n
                  • alternate bus tour spin-off to New Hamburg to view homes in Marie Voisin\u2019s books\u2019 list (with accompanying local guides on the bus?)<\/li>\n
                  • <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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                    I have submitted this to the editor because I have been unable to find to Township\u2019s page where all the suggestions from citizens interested in this project have been compiled for review by all. My councillor was unable to find it either.<\/p>\n

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                    Respectfully submitted,<\/p>\n

                    Barry Wolfe, Baden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                    A VISION FOR WILMOT First, red paint was splashed in vehement anger over his head and torso. Then, the place where his feet had once rested was now filled by children\u2019s empty shoes. The soulful image of a now dead man was replaced with the soles of the imagined dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3144,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6264","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6265,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6264\/revisions\/6265"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisiswilmot.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}