This spring, James Bird, Laurie Bertram and Heidi Bohaker launched two initiatives aimed at helping to educate campus community members on the centrality of Indigenous communities to the making of modern Canada.
Canada by Treaty: Negotiating Histories is a pop-up exhibit that explores treaties, those legal agreements with Indigenous peoples that allowed non-Indigenous people to live on and own land in what is now Canada. It was designed with an educational goal in mind—to begin a conversation, to spark inquiry, to challenge assumptions. Words to Form is a proposed monument designed by James Bird that is devoted to residential schools and the issue of reconciliation.
Both the exhibit and the proposed monument respond to the celebrations surrounding Canada 150 as well as the specific Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Report. The exhibit was featured in an article by Metro News and UofT News, and the proposed monument was featured in an article by UofT News.
To learn more about Canada by Treaty or to visit the exhibit, please go to the Canada by Treaty page on the History Department's website. The exhibit is located in the Map Room at Hart House until the end of May, and then will travel between the University of Toronto's three campuses throughout 2017 and 2018. Words to Form is located in the Common Lounge, Department of History (2nd Floor, Sidney Smith Hall) as of Friday 5 May.