By Staff
August 3rd, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
For Canada’s 150th birthday, the Museums of Burlington are celebrating Joseph Brant Day at LaSalle Park with all things Canadian.
This year, revel in the food truck rally highlighting Canadian ingredients.
Enjoy the main stage entertainment by local performers. Interact with local organizations and businesses, hosting a variety of fun games and activities.
You will sure find something to love from our long list of exciting features, including: a “Made in Canada” vendors market, henna tattooing, live art performance, community mural project, and many more!
The Joseph Brant Museum as it looks today. It has been closed for close to a year and probably will never again be open to the public.
But you may not hear very much about the $10 million expansion that is to take place at the Joseph Brant Museum on Lakeshore Road.
Before packing things in for the summer city council approved the provision of a $1 million dollar top up sum to ensure that all the funding was in place for the construction of the new updated museum that will turn the replica structure into an administrative office that the public won’t get anywhere near. What is now the museum will be pivoted and moved a short distance while construction of the new museum, much of which will be underneath a large pile of earth.
Artists rendering of the proposed re-development of the Joseph Brant Museum.
Neither the Museum staff or the Museum Foundation have said very much about just what is going to be in the new structure other than to say that it will be 300% bigger than what is in place now.
One would have thought that the Joseph Brant Day would have been an excellent opportunity to tell the public about these big big plans.
This time next year the construction will be well underway.
For this year what the public gets is
MAIN STAGE SCHEDULE
11:30 Opening Ceremony
12:30 First Nations Pow Wow Dance Demonstrations
1:30 Halton Dance Network Interactive Dance Workshop
2:30 Curious Canadian Critter Show
3:30 Bar Blue Sea Live Band
At various times during the day there will be Interactive First Nations Drum Circles
FOOD TRUCK RALLY
Food Trucks have proven to be very popular at the annual Joseph Brant Day celebration.
Feast at the Food Truck Rally. This is a really smart addition to the Brant day celebration. The dishes being offered are said to be inspired by Canadian ingredients.
Enjoy a smokey maple bacon poutine, a True North burger, maple cotton candy and more!
There’s something for everyone: Dora’s Express, Luchadore Gourmet Streatery, Cafe du Monde Creperie, Pappas Greek, Sweet Temptation Cupcakery, MeatVentures, and Triple Treats.
MADE IN CANADA VENDORS MARKET
Explore the vendors market which will showcase the work of local artisans and businesses. Plan to visit the Purpal Paisley Soapery, Ruff Trade Ties/ Little Kitchen Helpers, The Davidson Co., She’s Got Leggz, In Front Design Studio, Voxx Life, Healing Treasures, Woodfully Wooden World, The Good Red Earth Soap Company, Pandamonium Publishing House, Rubber Ducky Co., Life lounge Chiropractic and Health Centre, Papas Pens by Bill and more.
What would Joseph Brant have said about all this? Maybe his peers knew what was best for Brant when they moved his remains from Burlington to Brantford where they rest in peace today.
The Brant tomb sits just outside the Mohawk Chapel near Brantford.
Joseph Brant – the man.
Just who was this man Joseph Brant, the corner stone of the city’s history ?
The Museum staff tend to tell the public very little about the man who was given the land grant that Burlington was built on. Lest he be totally forgotten – here is a short version of his story:
Mohawk Leader. Born on the banks of the Ohio River to Tehonwagh’ kwangeraghkwa of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk. In his early youth, Thayendanega became a favorite of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Northern Indians of America.
Thayendanega was among a number of young Mohawks who were selected by Johnson to attend Moor’s Charity School for Indians at Lebanon, Connecticut where he became known as Joseph Brant. That school evolved into what today is known as Dartmouth University.
Joseph Brant was frequently painted by British artists who were keen to capture his image – he was very popular during his several visits to the United Kingdom.
Brant left school at about age 13 and followed Sir William into battle during the French and Indian War. He became Sir William’s aide in the Indian Department, administered by the British out of Quebec. In August 1775, the leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League met in council and decided that the growing conflict was a private affair between the British and the colonists, and that they should stay out of it. Brant denounced the Iroquois League’s decision to remain neutral and called the Americans the enemy of all Indians. He feared white expansion would push the Iroquois off their lands if the colonists achieved independence. Brant used his influence to engage the League for the British, four tribes, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas entered into an alliance with England.
The oak tree on Allview, a street that runs off the North Shore Road, marks the western boundary of the land grant given to Joseph Brant.
The Oneidas and Tuscaroras ultimately sided with the Colonists splintering the confederation. Brant received a Captain’s commission in the British army and was placed in charge of the Indian forces loyal to the Crown. Brant took part in the Battle of the Cedars in 1776, German Flats, and Cherry Valley in 1778, establishing a formidable reputation for himself. At war’s end, Britain abandoned its Indian allies in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, when it ceded the Crown’s claim to land south of the Great Lakes and accepted peace terms that contained no mention of tribal rights.
Brant retained his commission in the British Army and was awarded a land grant on the Grand River in Ontario by Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand in 1784. Brant led almost 2000 Iroquois Loyalists from New York to his grant where they settled and established the Grand River Reservation.
In this portrait Joseph Brant is seen wearing the gorget given to him by King George III. That gorget is the most important piece in the collection at the Joseph Brant Museum.
This land grant was separate from the 3000 plus acres he was granted in what became Burlington and whee he built a home. The current museum is a replica of the house he built.
Brant traveled to England in 1785 and succeeded in obtaining compensation for Mohawk losses in the American Revolution.
He encouraged the Mohawk to adopt Christianity and support British style schooling. His translations of Saint Mark’s Gospel and the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk were published in 1787. Brant died at about 65 years at his home in what was then known as Wellington Square which came to be known as Burlington.
Surprised to learn the the home itself will be moved again and off limits