ESKASONI — An iconic statue in Eskasoni First Nation is being repaired after someone set fire to it Friday.
Walter Denny Jr. was making his daily walk through the Stations of the Cross on the hillside when he noticed something was wrong.
It was obvious as he came over the crest of the hill that the statue, normally bright shades of blue, pink and white, was covered in a dark layer of soot. When he got closer, the flames came into view, and the smell of gasoline hit him.
Denny used snow to put out the fire, and then recruited some friends to help search the hillside, but they didn't find anyone. They reported the arson to the local RCMP.
The Way of the Cross, Klutjewey Awtituk in Mi'kmaq, is a popular pilgrimmage for local Christians, especially this time of year, when many people make the steep hike every day for the 40 days of Lent.
The rough trail is marked by 14 numbered white wooden crosses depicting the events of Jesus' crucifiction. At the top of the hill, overlooking the community of Eskasoni and the Bras d'Or Lake, stands a huge aluminum cross. Off to the side, in a clearing surrounded by trees, stands the statue of the Blessed Mother.
Denny said it will be 100 years next year since this site was first marked with three wooden crosses at the top of the hill. Over the years, due to the strong winds, the crosses blew over and were replaced, until this aluminum iteration was secured in a block of cement in 2005. Electrical wires run from a nearby house to illuminate the cross at night.
Community response
Denny said the nearby statue weighs 1,000 pounds, and was purchased by an elder in 1995 for $500. The community raised money to cover the cost, and Denny was one of 20 or so people who carried it to the top of the mountain.
He said people have been visiting the monument regularly since, saying prayers and leaving trinkets and small symbols of their loved ones at the feet of the Blessed Mother. Many of those offerings were melted and blackened on Saturday morning when Denny and others arrived for the cleanup. Remnants of the dozens of rosary beads left around the neck of the statue could be seen in the snow.
Denny took photos of the scene on Friday afternoon and posted them to Facebook, where hundreds of people reacted with shock and sadness to the act of vandalism. Denny said he wasn't surprised to see the responses, and the community's willingness to pitch in to repair the damage.
"A lot of people come for their own reasons. I see them every day, coming up. It's a 100-year-old tradition. The elders come up, if they can make it up, they come up."
Volunteers made the trek up the hill carrying cleaning supplies donated by the Foodland Market in Eskasoni.
Local resident Pierre Gould brought a camping stove to boil water for the cleanup. As the afternoon went on, more people arrived to help, and by the end of the day, the statue was scrubbed clean and ready for a new coat of paint, which local artists Cass Denny and Tayla Paul will add before close to a 1,000 people visit the site on Good Friday.
Mi'kmaq hymns
Denny, one of the few that still know the Mi'kmaq hymns, will sing them as a procession makes its way up the hillside on the morning of April 2. He still uses the texts, written in 1912, that belonged to his great-grandmother, Jessie Gould, one of the Mi'kmaq prayer leaders.
As Denny prepares to lead his community in prayer for the annual Good Friday pilgrimmage, he knows it's important for the treasured icon to be restored.
"Our site is simple, there's no bells and whistles here, but it's the beauty and what it represents — sharing, family, love, and forgiveness. Even something like this person can be forgiven, taken from a negative into a positive," he said.
"We're not mad. We'll pray for whoever did this," Gould said as he rinsed the last of the soot from the smiling face of the statue and stepped back to admire his hard work.
