Holy Cross Church (Wiikwemkoong)

The first known European person to go to Manitoulin Island was a Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph Poncet. He arrived in 1648. No one followed to sustain a European presence on the island. After the War of 1812, the Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi tribes moved to the island. Further First Nation people also moved to the island after the Treaty of Washington in 1836. In 1838, a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Jean-Baptiste Proulx, was asked to come to the island to serve the local Catholic population, marking the first Jesuit mission to Northern Ontario in the nineteenth century.[4] In 1845, he left and the Jesuits continued in his place. They built a school, a residence, a sawmill and an agricultural training centre for the local people.[1]

As the Jesuits who worked in the Wiikwemkoong had to learn the Ojibwe language and then teach the young people there how to write it, an exchange in skills and languages emerged. This exchange of language meant that the Nishnaabeg of Manitoulin Island wrote in the Ojibwe language not only in about religious matter but also in their personal and political correspondence, serving multiple uses to multiple audiences. Also, over the course of the 19th century most of the written Ojibwe texts were produced by non-Native people, usually missionaries and linguists, such as the Jesuits, so a burgeoning Nishnaabe literacy movement emerged.[2]

View down Wikwemikong Way

In 1848, plans were made to build a permanent church structure. One of the Jesuits there, Fr. Nicholas Point, was an architect and designed the church. The foundation stone of the church was laid on 31 July 1849. It was built using limestone bricks. The builders were local people. Construction finished nearly three years later and the church was opened on 25 July 1852. In 1899, the church steeple was built.[5]