Minto Park tree honours Kenyan activist

A newly planted sugar maple tree stands in Minto Park in memory of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who died, aged 71, in September after battling cancer.

Ottawa-based Nobel Women’s Initiative, a social justice group co-founded by Maathai, green group Ecology Ottawa, Mayor Jim Watson, and diplomats from the Kenyan and Norwegian embassies presented the tree planting ceremony early last month at the Elgin Street park.

“We’re very proud of the organization created by Wangari,” says NWI spokeswoman Rachel Vincent. “It’s a way of raising awareness of her life and her contributions to the community here in Ottawa.”

The organization chose Ottawa for its offices because there are shared interests in women’s rights from universities to a “well-educated” workforce, says Vincent.

Maathai was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in environmental and social activism for women. She had more than 47 million trees planted across environmentally devastated Kenya.

“Wangari commonly used an analogy that a journey starts with a single step and that step for her was planting trees with rural women,” writes Francesca de Gasparis, Europe director of the Green Belt Movement, in a blog post. “It sounds deceptively simple, but it led the Green Belt Movement along a path of social change, of democracy building.”

The Green Belt Movement, created by Maathai herself, has improved the “social and economic position” of about 900,000 women, according to a United Nations report.

Vincent says she hopes those who walk by will notice the plaque with a quote from Maathai herself.

“It’s the little things that citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees,” it reads.

She says these words will make passer-bys think of their own ability to contribute to change.

“Her thing was planting trees, their little thing could be different,” she says.

Maathai encouraged breaking the status quo in women’s rights.

“(Maathai) was a believer that citizens need to hold their governments accountable for their action or inaction on the environment,” says Trevor Haché, policy co-ordinator of Ecology Ottawa.

The NWI suggested Minto Park because of its downtown location and the city liked the idea as well – the tree was purchased as part of the city tree planting program, says Vincent.

The cost of planting a tree with the city is $400, says Mabee.

The tree is much needed downtown as the though Emerald Ash Borer, a destructive beetle is quickly killing inner-city trees, she says.

Research shows 25 per cent of Ottawa’s trees, mainly ash, could disappear if the city doesn’t act quickly, says Haché.

But the city has a long way to go with treating infected trees, so more trees need to be planted, says Mabee.

Although the tree honours Maathai’s efforts, her message still hasn’t faded.

“We know that Wangari would urge us to take a different direction,” Haché said in a speech during the ceremony. “May this tree serve as inspiration and an important reminder to Ottawans that we have the power to affect change and we will always encourage our elected officials to do more to protect the planet.”