Bridging gaps with sap

Despite what your eyes – and your thermometer – were telling you this week, spring has arrived, and with it comes sugaring season.

To commemorate that fact, the Morgan Arboretum in St. Anne de Bellevue had its Maple Syrup Festival on Sunday, a return for the event that had been on hiatus since before the pandemic.

“It was a really good event on Sunday, so I’m feeling very, very happy about it,” said Kasia Peruzzi, communication and engagement supervisor for the Morgan Arboretum.

The event was originally scheduled for March 30, but freezing rain forced it to be moved to last Sunday.

“Thankfully, it was the most beautiful weather we could have ever asked for,” said Peruzzi.

On hand for the day’s events was Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) chief Stephen McComber, who gave an explanation of the responsibility of respecting the land, upholding the connection to the land, and the responsibility towards the children to keep up that respect and connection.

“I think it’s a very good thing, because now you have different communities all over Quebec and all around Canada that start to acknowledge the territory, where they are, and they want to know about their relationship to their environment, to share some of our cultural knowledge,” said McComber.

After he spoke, McComber had everyone thank the maples for their blessings in providing the syrup they’d be having that morning, before leading the crowd in a dance.

“For me, it’s an honour, because they’re acknowledging us,” said McComber.

Peruzzi said that it was an honour for the Arboretum as well to have McComber be there.

“The entire maple sugaring process is a very visual example of Indigenous forest management and agriculture that has beenpracticed here for centuries. Having chief McComber present was pretty much essential to me. I don’t even know if I would have done the event without that,” said Peruzzi, who added that she hoped it would mark a start to a reciprocal relationship with the Kahnawake community.

“That connection may have been broken, or maybe even maybe neglected, in the past, but hopefully we’re really going to refocus on that going into the future,” said Peruzzi.

Paola Hawa, mayor of St. Anne de Bellevue, also felt that McComber’s presence at the festival mattered a lot, especially in the context of the Arboretum itself.

“It has the most species of trees in an arboretum in all of Canada, it is a very special place on the island of Montreal. To have that much protected, pure, unadulterated green space in Montreal is very rare. What he was saying is, this is our legacy. We have to take care of it, not just for us, but for our children,” said Hawa.

“It is always a pleasure to see him and to listen to him, his sense of humor and his words of wisdom.”

The Arboretum is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2025, so starting off the year with what has historically been its biggest event was the logical choice for Peruzzi.

An estimated 600 people came to the Arboretum on Sunday, which was more than expected.

“Coming back from COVID, we weren’t sure what to expect. And again, we’re very, very happy with the turnout, especially because we kept it simple this year. Hopefully going into the future, it’ll just get bigger and bigger,” said Peruzzi.

“The people who have been coming since they were kids, maybe they brought their kids, and hopefully, seven generations into the future, the people of the community, the wider community, will still be attending this event.”

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