Tsí Tkaròn:to, where the trees meet the water, is the home of the Mississauga of the Credit First Nation, Haudenonsaunee and Anishinaabeg peoples. Here, we have collected a series of artistic and scholarly responses to being and living in these Lands.
To hear more about the name Tkaronto, which is a shortened version of Tsí Tkaròn:to, and Kaniatarí:io, please see this Kanien:ke’ha Radio Broadcast and Exhibit by Ryan Decaire, from the Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto.
From Susan Blight (Anishinaabe, Couchiching) and Hayden King (Anishinaabe, Gchi’mnissing), founders of Ogimaa Mikana:
The Ogimaa Mikana Project is an effort to restore Anishinaabemowin place-names to the streets, avenues, roads, paths, and trails of Gichi Kiiwenging (Toronto) – transforming a landscape that often obscures or makes invisible the presence of Indigenous peoples. Starting with a small section of Queen St., re-naming it Ogimaa Mikana (Leader’s Trail) in tribute to all the strong women leaders of the Idle No More movement, the project hopes to expand throughout downtown and beyond.
From artist Tyler J. Sloane (they/he/she):
We live in a glass city, made of minerals and metals from all across this world, over top of water ways.
Often, I feel like that rush and hustle of the city – while definitely capitalism – is also the rush of this
place as a water way. I moved to this city in a braid; for my artistry – acting, for my identity, and for my
ethnic culture. Toronto is hard, ephemeral summers and bitter winters, so much culture, so much
exhaustion. I didn’t anticipate that theatre and actors would usher me into the mix and vibrancy of this
city, and yet they did. From them connecting me to other artistic communities and activists – to folks
who also had a deep and insatiable interest in culture. Within that I learned about acknowledging
your history, and who was here before. So, we usher people in with land acknowledgements, and this
visualisation art piece personifies mine – as part of many steps in doing so.
Toronto is identified as a melting pot of culture, as a beacon of art, as a place where the trees grow in
water, as a place stolen.
IILF 2025 