BACKGROUND:
Indigenize or Die has embarked on a journey of understanding what it means to re-indigenize Toronto’s parks and public realm, and how to support that.

In our October session (see the report below), the City of Toronto and their consulting team gave a presentation on the TOCore Parks and Public Realm Plan they are developing, and received feedback from indigenous and other participants. A stark contrast between indigenous and settler worldviews was revealed. The need for the land itself to be a participant in the planning process emerged as an overarching theme. Indigenous participants also spoke of their need and right to be in relationship with the land. One part of reconciliation is to restore the damage done to the land itself, they stated, while re-creating opportunities for indigenous "customary practices" on the land.

We have invited Clara MacCallum Fraser and Christine Migwans to help deepen and broaden last month’s dialogue by looking at how indigenous consciousness and local treaty history can inform land use planning today. 

Through her doctoral research, “Imagining Planning Futures: urban planning as fulfillment of treaty,” Clara intends to enable planners to engage in genuine and transformative relationship-building with Indigenous communities, and to support indigenous consultation staff in their efforts to impact local planning processes. She will share the journey she has undertaken to understand what it means to be in right relationship as a planner.

Christine will underpin the dialogue with an indigenous perspective on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things and how that relates to treaty making and to land planning. Treaties include the consciousness of the land, the seen and the unseen. To re-indigenize fundamentally means an intention to restore these relationships and ways of being. 

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Clara MacCallum Fraser, Shared Path Consultation Initiative and York University
Clara is the co-Executive Director of Shared Path Consultation Initiative, an Indigenous-non-Indigenous organisation that raises awareness around urban planning and Aboriginal and treaty rights through workshops and research. She is currently a second year PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Her research, entitled “Imagining Planning Futures: urban planning as fulfillment of treaty” focuses on the intersection of urban planning and Aboriginal & Treaty rights, with a particular focus on Anishinaabe Nations in Ontario. In seeking to make reconciliation a part of her life, Clara is learning about treaties and her own responsibilities to those treaties as a settler person, in particular those over Toronto and the eastern shores of Georgian Bay, where she grew up and currently resides. 
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Christine Migwans
Christine holds a masters degree in Indigenous Studies from Trent University. She has worked extensively with Indigenous peoples in Canada and Thailand. She is interested in reconciliation through Indigenous education, transforming the moral fabric of the country, and Treaty ethics and philosophy.

Kevin Best, Series Curator
Kevin Best has focused on how to create a just and sustainable society through activism, innovative business and restoring Indigenous society for over four decades. Of mixed heritage, through adoption he self-identifies as Anishinabeg of the Martin Clan. He has worked with Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island, consulted to Greenpeace and pioneered green energy in Ontario. He is currently working on a start-up called Odenaansan (Village or “the little places where my heart is”), an integrated, culturally-based approach to restoring Minobimadzin (the good life) through sustainable food, energy, housing and water in Anishinabe communities. Passionate about decolonization and re-indigenization, he is committed to spreading understanding of these life-giving possibilities. He is Managing Director of Rivercourt Engineering.

ABOUT THE "INDIGENIZE OR DIE" SERIES
The ship of global imperialism and colonization has hit an iceberg. While the majority of the world's inhabitants suffer the consequences of runaway capitalism and globalized war-making, the very few on the upper decks continue their party with business as usual, blissfully ignoring the realities. 

In this series, "Indigenize or Die," we deconstruct the myths of the dominant culture, explore a more truthful historical perspective and how that manifests today. Then, through the lens of decolonization and re-indigenization, we explore together possibilities for an ecologically sustainable and socially-just way forward. We ask, how can we ensure the survival of complex life on this land in accordance with its legitimate laws and the laws of Nature?  

The intent of the series is to weave an understanding of history and current reality into developing a practical "go forward" plan for this land. We will be joined by other Indigenous people from both here and elsewhere around Mother Earth throughout the year. ​Curated by Kevin Best. See unifytoronto.ca to know more.

Indigenize or Die has embarked on a journey of understanding what it means to re-indigenize Toronto’s parks and public realm and how to support that.

About eighty-five people attended our October session--indigenous people, settlers, newcomers. The City of Toronto and their consulting team gave a presentation on the TOCore Parks and Public Realm Plan they are developing, and received feedback from indigenous and other participants.

A stark contrast between indigenous and settler worldviews was revealed. The need for the land itself to be a participant in the planning process emerged as an overarching theme. Indigenous participants also spoke of their need and right to be in relationship with the land. One part of reconciliation is to restore the damage done to the land itself, they stated, while re-creating opportunities for indigenous "customary practices" on the land.

​The City of Toronto is developing a 40-year plan Parks and Public Realm Plan for the city core to improve the quality and connectivity of public spaces. The plan, to quote the City, presents a chance to “generate a bold and compelling vision for the parks system and public realm network that puts public life and place-making […] at the forefront of long-term planning.” 
 
Public engagement is at the root of the plan’s development, and the planners have expressed a desire to include an indigenous lens in that plan. Early City consultation with some indigenous people and agencies pointed to the possibility of a much greater focus on reindigenization.

​Kristina Reinders, who is leading the Plan’s development for the City of Toronto, was with us, along with members of the consulting team the city has retained. They presented this slideshow about the Plan. 

Following a Q & A period, Indigenous participants presented a number of visions and proposals for how to re-indigenize Toronto’s parks and public realm:
 
INDIGENOUS USE OF THE LAND: We need fire circles around the city, places of ceremony and healing for people and for the land itself.

• The plan should recognize and restore ways the land was used before settlers arrived as well as the way first nations continue to use the land: for ceremony and customary use, such as gathering family and council around fires in Toronto’s public spaces. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) both refer to the importance of first nations using land for ceremony and customary use. 
  
  
• Set aside significant pieces of urban land and give them the status of a kind of indigenous “embassy”, i.e., they would not be Canadian municipal, provincial or federal territory.  Nor would they be anything like a “reserve” governed by Indian Affairs, nor the “property” of Indigenous people in any Canadian sense of the word. The land in question would have indigenous status in the sense of it not being possible to own it or define it as property in any way. Simply put, this land would be “owned” by God, if any kind of owner had to be identified - or exist unto itself as a sacred manifestation that, if anything, “owns” us as humans.  
  
  What could take place there would have to be determined in relation to re-emergent indigenous cultural frameworks, and some rules would obviously need to apply from the outset given our urban context, e.g., any structures would likely need to be impermanent (i.e., temporary lodges only, made from saplings).  
  
  Beyond that it’s hard to say, but certainly from the beginning they would be places of ceremony and healing (with corresponding rules like no booze or drugs), both for people and the land itself, and for learning and the restoration of balance to the extent possible, considered through community and culture-based indigenous principles and practices, and ultimately grounded in natural and sacred or universal laws as articulated by Indigenous people in this region (primarily the Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee).  
  
  
• Make indigenous history in Toronto visible. For example, at the Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden indigenous people telling stories have inspired and informed projects relating to arts, culture and plants.

• Organize the ecological restoration of parks in the city, and ensure opportunities for native youth to participate in that.

• Enable and encourage food production—in Toronto’s parks and public realm but also in people’s yards and on their balconies.

• Another step that could help recognize indigenous uses of land could be to map the trails used by indigenous communities; restoring these trails could be a long-term goal.

• Daylight Toronto’s rivers. Seven rivers run through the city, and these were the lifeline for indigenous people.

SPACES AND COLLECTIVE PROCESSES: Spaces around the city for indigenous society, institutions and structures to be restored will enable meaningful consultation with indigenous voices.

• There’s a need for a new way of consulting with indigenous voices — a “2.0” version of the City’s Aboriginal Affairs Committee that can express a collective indigenous voice in consultations. The plan needs to be based on an understanding of how indigenous people lived on this land, and that will only work when indigenous people are at the table to talk about that. Indigenous people are readily available and can be part of the public planning process.
  
  It is incumbent on the colonial structures, if get are sincere, to provide the resources to create the spaces to allow indigenous society, institutions and structures to be restored because only then can meaningful consultation with First Nations occur. It is currently almost impossible to consult with indigenous people, as the colonizer era was so effective in destroying indigenous society, institutions and structures. Marie Wilson reported that the number one thing she heard as a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner was, "They stole my identity." 

​Patricia Kambitsch of PlayThink captured the visions and proposals and the Q&A session here:

Participants were then asked to talk in small groups about how they could, individually and collectively, support these visions and proposals to come to life. In fact, their discussions resulted in many cases in more feedback and ideas for the TOCore Plan.
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Patricia Kambitsch (PlayThink.com) has captured their key ideas here: