Part I: TRTL Blessed in Native Blackfoot Ceremony
Team Canada poses with Reg Crowshoe, a member of the Piikani Nation. Crowshoe blessed the TRTL solar house according to Native Blackfoot tradition.
June 21, 2011
Today is the summer solstice and Canada's National Aboriginal Day. It was perfect timing for the groundbreaking ceremony for our Solar Decathlon 2011 home called TRTL ("turtle") -- short for Technological Residence, Traditional Living.
The ceremony was an important step to validate TRTL according to the traditional protocols of our Native Treaty 7 partners.
Treaty 7 was an 1877 peace agreement between the British and Canadian governments and the Native tribes of Southern Alberta. Such treaties continue to play a critical role in the relationship between Native peoples and Canada's federal, provincial and municipal governments.
Today we also announced our title sponsor, Cenovus Energy, whose generous contribution of $600,000 was essential to our project's success. We're so grateful for Cenovus' support and for the commitment the company has shown since the project's beginning.
Our spiritual-cultural adviser and the former chief of the Piikani Nation, Reg Crowshoe, was the guest of honor. After opening the morning with a Blackfoot prayer, he led team members through the ceremony, using a branch to mark the construction site at the four cardinal directions and its center, each time acknowledging the sun.
This process is an important component of Native tradition, which draws on venue, action, language and song to bless a home -- and to connect it to the greater natural order.
It was a very emotional experience for me. As the master of ceremony, I spoke about my recent research into Native housing to highlight the significance of TRTL. For six of the past eight weeks, I've been travelling to Native communities across Canada, attending conferences and researching sustainable housing initiatives.
My research confirmed for us the nature and scope of the Native housing crisis, including key issues of health, safety, durability and ownership. This experience also pointed to the importance of working with the community to explore holistic and sustainable solutions.