Jesuits Fathers and Brothers have served the aboriginal peoples of Manitoulin
Island and West Bay for centuries. Father J.A. Poncet was the first Jesuit to winter
among the Odawa of Manitoulin Island in 1648. For the next 150 years, few
inhabitants remained in the area, and the mission was abandoned.
It was revived in 1826 when Father Proulx, a diocesan priest, came to reside on
the island. Groups of Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi were returning to make
their home on the island. A large group settled in Wikwemikong where Fr Proulx
had his center. In 1844, he was joined by Jesuit Fr J.P. Chone and then, the next
year, by Fr J.U. Hanipaux. In 1854, Fr. Fremiot dedicated the church in West Bay to
the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
A dire development occurred in 1861 when the people of Wikwemikong denied
the Upper Canada government any consideration in terms of land ownership. But
the people of the rest of the island were drawn into land arrangements that
would see the population reduced to smaller territories-reserves, in which they
were to settle. Sadly, the Jesuits and Wikwemikong, whose territory was now
exempted, were outsmarted and the rest of the island entered into treaties with
the new government. Wikwemikong alone, to this day, remains the only unceded
territory in Canada.
In 1971, when the church was destroyed by an accidental propane explosion, Fr
M. Murray, along with band officials and the architect M. May, selected a design
that reflected the Anishnabe reality of catholic spirituality. The ‘round church of
West Bay’ shows the coming together of the community, much as elders would
come together for a council circle, or as people would gather in a sweat lodge.
Joseph Fox was ordained a deacon in 1977. In this joyous celebration, M’Chigeeng
welcomed, for the first time, an ordained man into service in the parish who was
from the parish. In the next three decades deacon Joe would baptise over one-
hundred children and marry over a dozen couples. Joseph Fox was known as a
counsellor and a comforter to those in need.
The visit of Pope John Paul II to Canada in 1984 inspired aboriginal peoples from
coast to coast. Speaking in Midland, ON, the Pope declared that “Christ is himself,
in his members, Indian.” Deacons from many native parishes were presented with
a ‘Book of the Gospel’ by the Holy Father, including Joseph Fox.
In 1977, Daryl Winkler-Corbiere, a native son of M’Chigeeng, was ordained in
Toronto as a Basilian priest. M’Chigeeng celebrated his first mass with him.
The new building for the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation opened on the site across
the church with exceptional exhibits of art works and craft in 2000. Beyond the
seven First Nations on Manitoulin, a total of seventeen First Nations from the
Sault to lower Georgian Bay have become participants in this astonishing cultural
achievement.
The History of a Diocese in Northern Ontario, Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, Du
Signe, Strasbourg, France, 2014, p. 104.