PelhamToday received the following letter to the editor from a reader regarding the naming of Wellington Heights Public School:
The school that was originally named E.W. Farr Memorial School in Fenwick is now named Wellington Heights. It is located on Canboro Road, an “Indian Trail.”
In 1957, when I was in Grade 8, our teacher and principal, R.D. (Mac) MacArthur, had us research the history of Fenwick for our social studies class. We went around town and talked to “old people” and asked them about the history of the village. We found out the reason the bricks on Danford’s house were so red was because they were soaked in beer, and there used to be a large annual “fair” on Church Street complete with horse racing.
Mac told us that there was a trading post at the crossroad of Church Street and Canboro Road and Indigenous tribes came from Lake Ontario down Maple Street, from Lake Erie down Church Street, from Cayuga down Canborough Road, and from Niagara Falls up Canboro Road to trade with each other. How he knew this, I don’t know but we all thought this was very cool to know that the arrowheads we found were perhaps from a “mighty warrior.”
When Pelham Centre School was closed and additions were added to E.W. Farr Memorial school, the name was changed to Wellington Heights. I don’t know why this happened because my understanding was that when the DSBN held a poll about the renaming, most people said to keep the name E.W. Farr Memorial.
Why did they choose to honour Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who had absolutely nothing to do with Fenwick, or Ontario—or Canada, for that matter? Wellesley was anti-semitic and favoured the slave trade. The mere presence of this name and title serves as a constant reminder of colonialism.
Canada is no longer a colony and it is inappropriate to pay homage to an individual whose ideals no longer align with today’s values in Canada. I know that we can’t change history, but to honour a man such as the Duke of Wellington as a current school name is a disservice to our Indigenous peoples.
When the DSBN decided to change the name to Wellington Heights, the historical significance of the land on which the school was built was not generally known. It was not well known that the land is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, many of whom continue to live and work here today. Did the students receive all the details on the personality of the Duke of Wellington and his background, or just that he defeated Napoleon?
I don’t believe any of this history was shown to the students or teachers at Pelham Centre. So, now that all this is known, perhaps, it is time for the DSBN to have another look at the name.
Vilma Moretti
Fonthill
