Shahwundais (John Sunday)

In March 1837, the Plymouth and Stonehouse Auxiliary Branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society celebrated their 23rd anniversary here at the site of Ebenezer Chapel (now Methodist Central Hall). One of their guest speakers had been announced as an “Indian chief of the Chippewa tribe in North America” and people flocked to see and hear this visitor. According to the Western Courier, “long before the hour appointed every part of the chapel was crowded to excess, and the aisles and staircases were lined with persons anxious to obtain a view of the platforms.”/ That speaker was Shahwundais, also known as John Sunday, a Mississauga Ojibwe chief and Methodist minister. Born in 1795, Shawundais had been ordained in 1836, although he had worked for years as a travelling missionary. A year later, he travelled to England to raise funds for Indian missions and to advocate for First Nations’ land rights./ He was a talented speaker, much like Henry Pahtahquahong Chase, the other Mississauga Ojibwe preacher who visited Plymouth. At his address here, Shahwundais, dressed in the “European habit, with a coloured girdle around his waist,” spoke of his conversion to Christianity. He was “very favourably received” and the audience was “highly gratified with proceedings.” Shahwundais spoke at a similar meeting at Stonehouse the next day and then again the following day at a tea-party attended by about 500 people.

“Wesleyan Missions,” Western Courier, 8 March 1837, 3. Image “Shahwundais, Revd. John Sunday,” 1839 (Toronto Public Library), www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?R=DC-OHQ-PICTURES-S-R-923.