CORNWALL & AKWESASNE, Ontario – Heart of the City will be conducting two guided tours this summer, teaching attendees about some of the history within Cornwall and Akwesasne. Tickets are $50 and went on sale yesterday, July 5, at the Chamber of Commerce.
“We wanted to create a bit of a partnership, so we had some meetings with our colleagues in Akwesasne and we created this Beyond the Borders Tour,” said Todd Lihou, Centretown Coordinator with Heart of the City.
Through partnership with the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Economic Development, two tours were created.
The first will take place on July 21. During the morning portion of the tour, attendees will start at the Cornwall Historic Parkette with Sara Lauzon, who is known as Cornwall’s Little Historian. She will guide attendees through downtown, stop at the historical plaques and speak about Cornwall’s history. After this portion of the tour, attendees will be taken on a bus to Summerstown, where they will set off on a boat to Thompson Island. Lunch will be provided and the afternoon will be spent learning about Indigenous culture, specific to Akwesasne.
The second guided tour will take place on August 14. The morning tour around Cornwall won’t change, but instead of going to Thompson Island in the afternoon, attendees will be taken by bus to the Native North American Travelling College.
“We wanted to give people kind of a broad spectrum of information, and we thought splitting it up like that would do that,” said Lihou. “And really, what this is is a pilot project, so we are doing a couple this year to see what type of engagement we get. And if people are into it – and we think they will be because people have been talking about it already – we’re going to branch out and do a bunch next year. So we could do maybe a couple a month next year, during the summer months.”
There will be space for 30 participants on each tour.
