Week 30
Our office is spending the year focusing on how to "Break Down Barriers"; so Indigenous Education Week feel completely in line with the team's goals. I was already registered for this walking tour (since I had such a great experience at the last one); but I was excited to attend this time with my co-workers. This experience was different from the last one. The focus was the U of T campus, and the stories were plentiful. The two facilitators were incredible; one person focused on the stories, and her experience as an indigenous woman, while the other facilitator clearly had an education in the historical background/treaties which was great because people had loads of questions.
Date: Thursday November 2, 2017
Event/Activity: Field Trip: First Stories
Capacity: Student/Staff
Found: Hart House
Host: Hart House/First Stories Toronto
Link: http://harthouse.ca/events/field-trip-first-story/
Description: Join us for a walk that explores Indigenous Histories on St. George campus. Starting at Hart House, this experience will provide opportunities to learn about prominent Indigenous figures that shaped the city and campus we know today. Facilitated by guides from First Story Toronto, this tour will consider the origins of the land that U of T occupies and how it connects with our present. Explore the Native Student Association Medicine Garden, Philosopher’s Walk, Queen’s Park, the Royal Ontario Museum and the buried rivers that still run below us.
This walking tour encourages students to interpret, record and reflect on the stories of Tkaronto,Turtle Island and Canada, and consider how these stories shape our own place and identities as we exist on Indigenous land. It provides an opportunity for students to build community while exploring the city. Sometime before the tour, we invite you to download the free app created by First Story Toronto (iOS and Android).
Experience:
What I learned:
-M
Date: Thursday November 2, 2017
Event/Activity: Field Trip: First Stories
Capacity: Student/Staff
Found: Hart House
Host: Hart House/First Stories Toronto
Link: http://harthouse.ca/events/field-trip-first-story/
Description: Join us for a walk that explores Indigenous Histories on St. George campus. Starting at Hart House, this experience will provide opportunities to learn about prominent Indigenous figures that shaped the city and campus we know today. Facilitated by guides from First Story Toronto, this tour will consider the origins of the land that U of T occupies and how it connects with our present. Explore the Native Student Association Medicine Garden, Philosopher’s Walk, Queen’s Park, the Royal Ontario Museum and the buried rivers that still run below us.
This walking tour encourages students to interpret, record and reflect on the stories of Tkaronto,Turtle Island and Canada, and consider how these stories shape our own place and identities as we exist on Indigenous land. It provides an opportunity for students to build community while exploring the city. Sometime before the tour, we invite you to download the free app created by First Story Toronto (iOS and Android).
Experience:
- Started at Hart House and learned about clans/structure in indigenous communities
- Walked over to a monument where we learned about Oronhyatekha, a successful indigenous doctor in Canada
- Went to the Indigenous Medicine Garden at the back of Hart House and learned about the importance of the traditional sacred plants
- Walked over to Philosophers Walk where we talked about the importance of water, the first murders in Toronto and the land tensions between Toronto and Indigenous communities back in the day/now
- Went to the ROM and learned about the tensions with cultural institutions which often obtain artifacts in ways which aren't respectful to the culture
- Walked over to a location at Bloor and Yonge which used to be the site of a sacred burial ground; Toronto chose to develop on top of the burial grounds without taking the time to respect or relocate the bodies (also issues of looting); huge contrast to the Anglophone burial grounds across the street which they spent 20 years relocating before developing
What I learned:
- SO MUCH! I have such an appreciation for the stories, and a respect for local history
- We go about our day to day not really knowing what happened in our city years ago, and how it became what it is now
- Indigenous peoples take treaties very seriously; and the government clearly does not
- There is so much wrong with Canada's history....
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