Indigenous Placekeeping at Biidaasige Park

Indigenous placekeeping is the integration of Indigenous values and teachings into the design of public places.

Indigenous communities – including the Petun, the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishnabeg – had been fishing, hunting, growing food, gathering medicines, celebrating, healing and coming together in the area now known as Biidaasige Park, the Don River and Lake Ontario, long before European nations arrived. Indigenous perspectives and knowledge have been passed down through generations by song, story and experience from Elders and Knowledge Keepers and share how to:

  • live in a “good way” with all of creation
  • express gratitude to all living beings and the Earth
  • recognize that we live in reciprocity with nature

The City of Toronto Reconciliation Action Plan acknowledges that Indigenous placekeeping is integral to truth, justice and reconciliation. Placekeeping creates and nurtures space, in process and policy, for ceremony, teaching and community, and Indigenous connections with lands and waters. Through Indigenous placekeeping, the City of Toronto can build cultural competency and capacity for addressing historical and contemporary injustices against Indigenous communities and work towards repairing the relationship between settler and Indigenous societies.

Visit Recreation at Biidaasige Park to learn more about the amenities of the park.

Renaturalized Don River Watercourse and Habitat

Although the original Ashbridges Bay Marsh can never return to its original form, Biidaasige Park is a modern landscape reconciliation with the lost ecosystem. For the first time in over a century, Indigenous and settler communities will be able to fish, touch the water, walk under tree shade and share space with creatures large and small.

Placekeeping throughout the Park

  • Indigenous Plantings, like Sacred Tobacco, White Sagebrush, Staghorn Sumac and more
  • Interpretive Signage revealing the history of the area, designed by NVision Insight Group (late 2025)
  • Dodem Animal Sculptures designed by APE Richter/Christian Huba in consultation with Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and MinoKamik Collective
  • Sturgeon Stones, embedded in pathways as teaching signifiers, by artist Solomon King
  • A Fire Holder as part of a space for Indigenous ceremony (2026)
  • Shade Structure, designed by Tawaw Architecture Collective (late 2025)
  • Public Art, installed throughout the park, in collaboration with the Lassonde Art Trail (2026)
  • Marker Trees that guide visitors throughout the park, in collaboration with Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag, University of Toronto Daniels Forestry, Two Row Architect, Trophic Design