VICTORIA -- The top of Beacon Hill should be given back to First Nations and a traditional longhouse built there to replace the decaying Checkers Pavilion, says Victoria Coun. Marianne Alto.

Chiefs of the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations are supporting her idea.

Alto said "a confluence of circumstances" has provided the city with an opportunity to fulfil a commitment to act on recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated abuse of First Nations children at residential schools.

"It's just seemed that we had this opportunity to do something truly extraordinary," Alto said.

"The intent is for it to return to the First Nations, but to do so in a way where we all benefit from learning what was there and what could be there again."

Mayor Lisa Helps and Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe are supporting Alto's motion, which goes to council this week. It recommends the city return to the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations the top of Beacon Hill, and that the boarded-up Checkers Pavilion be removed and replaced with a longhouse, which would be used for First Nations cultural and educational activities.

The remaining $32,000 in the city's strategic priorities fund should be used to remove the pavilion and to expedite the longhouse proposal, the motion says.

Alto said the city has already set aside the slope to the southeast of the hilltop — traditional lands of the Lekwungen people — for reburial of First Nations remains uncovered during public works excavations.

Esquimalt Nation Chief Andy Thomas says in a letter to council that if the site is prepared and the longhouse opened in 2017, it would coincide with Canada's 150th anniversary. That could "open a door to potential federal government funding set aside for such sesquicentennial observances."

Songhees Chief Ron Sam called the longhouse proposal "a bold demonstration" of the city's commitment to reconciliation. "Songhees Nation welcomes the opportunity to work with Esquimalt Nation and the city to recreate a First Nations longhouse on this ancient site in which our young people may learn and demonstrate traditional carving skills, and from which all people may learn and share the history and stories of our Nations," Sam says in a letter to council.

Friends of Beacon Hill Park chairman Roy Fletcher doesn't think the idea has been fully thought through. Removal of Checkers Pavilion would be fine, but the site is not appropriate for a longhouse, he said, noting it would involve removal of native plants.

His group prefers a small lookout with interpretive signs, including ones focusing on First Nations.

"But going all the way to a longhouse, that just doesn't sound reasonable to me," Fletcher said.

Alto said the city would not spend money beyond site preparation. "I guess the question that some people would ask is, 'Are we going to pay more money for this?' And the answer is: No it's not anticipated at this time," Alto said.

Returning the hilltop to local First Nations is a "tangible, powerful act of reconciliation," Alto said in her report to council. For thousands of years, the Beacon Hill area has been "a place of historical, cultural and sacred significance to the Esquimalt and Songhees peoples," she said.

"The Lekwungen people actively shaped the landscape in this area by cultivating camas and other native plants for food. Their land-management practices created open meadows admired by the arriving British."

Alto said the city would retain ownership but would enable perpetual use for a longhouse.

Alto said the longhouse would be about the same size as the pavilion, about 2,000 square feet, but more rectangular.

Beacon Hill Park was established by a provincial trust in 1882.

Fletcher said turning over land to First Nations might be "quite tricky" legally. "I don't know if they're proposing to put a trust on top of a trust."

The Checkers Pavilion, where checkers used to be played, was completed in 1936 but has not been in use since the 1970s. In 1995, it was boarded up, considered unsafe to enter.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

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