In the spirit of reconciliation and on-going collaboration, the City of Toronto’s Heritage Planning Unit (in the City Planning Division) and Museums and Heritage Services Unit (in the Economic Development and Culture Division), have launched the Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project (IHEP) to join with Indigenous communities in an authentic learning process about Indigenous heritage in Toronto.
The Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project is a community-directed endeavour; the project aims to create conditions that encourage the sharing of knowledge, stories, and ideas related to Indigenous heritage within the City of Toronto.
The aims of the Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project are to:
The Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project is being designed in collaboration with Indigenous communities to listen to any and all Indigenous people, groups or organizations that have insights into Indigenous heritage in Toronto.
The Project was initiated and is funded by the City of Toronto’s Heritage Planning Unit and Museums and Heritage Services. It’s first step, in 2019 and 2020, was to reach out to Indigenous community representatives and organizations to understand if the project might be welcomed by Indigenous communities, and if so, how it could be developed collaboratively with them. The recommendation to bring together both a Steering Circle and a Knowledge Keepers Circle arose out of Co-development Dialogues in 2019 and 2020.
The Heritage Planning Unit works within the City Planning Division to identify properties across the City that may have cultural heritage value or interest, to evaluate those properties against Provincial Criteria to determine whether they merit inclusion on the City’s Heritage Register, and to manage change on properties on the Heritage Register to make sure their heritage values are conserved. The Heritage Planning Unit also manages the City’s interests in archaeology.
The Museum and Heritage Services operates 10 historic sites – including Toronto’s iconic Fort York National Historic Site – that collectively tell the story of Toronto. Staff also manage, maintain, and lead the development and adaptive reuse and restoration of 100 City-owned major cultural and heritage sites.
The Indigenous Heritage engagement Project will be guided by two Circles compromised of a diverse and representative group of Indigenous community members.
These Circles will hold critical conversations on behalf of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, and supporting organizations on how to best engage with and honour the heritage of Indigenous communities of Toronto.
We are pleased to be working in close collaboration with:
Three Sisters Consulting is a 100 per cent Indigenous owned facilitation, training, and business development company. Three Sisters Consulting incorporates Indigenous ways of knowing and Two-eyed Seeing into every aspect of our work. We utilize Circle facilitation to provide a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for Indigenous community engagement.
Guided by the Co-development Dialogues of 2019 and 2020, the City of Toronto is establishing an Indigenous Heritage Engagement – Steering Circle of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis representatives who will provide strategic direction for the IHEP engagement process and offer input on the development of an Indigenous Knowledge Keepers Circle.
The purpose of the Steering Circle is to:
The Indigenous Heritage Engagement – Knowledge Keepers Circle will be comprised of Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and representatives to provide Indigenous understandings and guidance on the appropriate use of Traditional Knowledge, Indigenous histories, and the stories and narratives gathered throughout the Indigenous Heritage Engagement project.
The purpose of the Knowledge Keepers Circle is to:
Through the Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project (IHEP), the City of Toronto will join with Indigenous communities in an authentic learning process about Indigenous heritage in Toronto, whatever Indigenous communities may consider that to be. Heritage Planning and Museums and Heritage Services staff wish to sit with Indigenous communities to listen, and to understand. At the end of the engagement period, the IHEP will share the record of that listening and understanding, as determined to be appropriate by Indigenous communities, so it may benefit as many people as possible.
The City of Toronto also intends to act on the knowledge and understanding gained through the IHEP. Outcomes may include:
The following case studies represent specific examples of some of the outcomes listed above.
Heritage Conservation Districts are a tool under the Ontario Heritage Act which can protect collections of properties which share common cultural heritage value.
The Baby Point neighbourhood is best known as the location of a 17th century Haudenosaunee village named Teiaiagon. Through engagement with Six Nations of the Grand River, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat Nation (Nation Huronne-Wendat), and urban Indigenous communities, Heritage Planning has gained an understanding of the significance of this place to those Nations and communities.
The development of a Heritage Conservation District through the Ontario Heritage Act will result in policies and guidelines that will manage future change to protect and respect this site and its significant features.
The Ontario Heritage Act also allows for individual properties to be protected by designation. The provincial criteria include considerations for architectural design, how a property relates to its context, and for people or events that are important to a community that may have taken place on that property.
The properties at 508 and 510 Church Street are good examples of properties that were designated, in part, for the importance of the property to communities. Since 1994 the two houses have been the home of Crews, later Crews and Tangos, a storied venue for drag performances and queer gatherings. The properties are a cultural landmark within the Church and Wellesley Village and for Toronto’s broader 2SLGBTQAI+ community.
In April 2022, City staff determined that the properties meet Ontario Regulation 9/06 (the criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act) on the basis of their design/physical, historical/associative, and contextual values. As such, the properties are significant built heritage resources.
Fort York National Historic Site, in collaboration with the Mississaugas of the Credit, hosts a permanent exhibit entitled How the War of 1812 Shaped Modern Canada. By working with the First Nation to apply an Indigenous truth-telling and storytelling lens to this exhibit, Fort York’s exhibit recognizes the contributions of Indigenous people before, during, and after the war.
Fort York also hosts the Na-Me-Res Annual Traditional Pow Wow and the Indigenous Arts Festival, an annual celebration of traditional and contemporary Indigenous music, dance, theatre, storytelling, film, crafts and food. Past performers have included Susan Aglukark, Tanya Tagaq, Morningstar River, Digging Roots, Mob Bounce, Red Spirit Singers, Supaman, Logan Staats, Metis Fiddler Quartet, Derek Miller, Red Sky Performance, and Kaha:wi Dance. It is the premier annual festival celebrating Indigenous arts and culture in the City of Toronto and helps to promote the vibrant and culturally rich Indigenous communities of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples in and around Toronto.
Indigenous Heritage Engagement Project Co-Development Dialogue Reports
Following a feasibility study, Toronto City Council approved the initiation of the Toronto Heritage Survey – a systematic, city-wide survey to engage communities in proactively identifying properties with potential heritage value.
The baseline information provided by the survey will:
In consultation with the Indigenous Affairs Office (IAO) and Museums and Heritage Services (MHS), City of Toronto’s Heritage Planning unit affirmed that the Toronto Heritage Survey project needed to include a distinct engagement program for Indigenous communities to understand what they may value as heritage in Toronto.