Water Allies

Blood and Water: Film Screening and Panel with Layla Black
2022-01-20 19:00 - 21:00 UTC
Join Water Allies for a film screening of Blood & Water: A Story of Reclamation. The film, directed by Layla Staats (Black) is a self-narrated documentary exposing new light on the modern day impact and generational trauma caused by residential schools, and exploring the relation between water and healing. Layla Staats is Mohawk, Turtle Clan from Six Nations on the Grand River. After the film, Layla & panelists shared stories about the Land Black movement, water and land defense, and their journey to connect with and reclaim their culture through a relationship with the water.
“This film shares some of the most important lessons I’ve learned on my road to reclaiming my Mohawk identity and a deeper look at how residential schools impacted me even though they had closed many years before I was born. I know that I am not alone, this is not just my story. This film goes out to everyone else that is walking the red road.”
— Layla Black, Director of Blood and Water

There's Something In the Water: screening and discussion with Dorene Bernard
2021-11-02 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
Guest Speaker: Dorene Bernard
Dorene Bernard is a grassroots grandmother from the Sipekne’katik band in Mi’kmak’i. She is a water protector, water walker, and survivor of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. Her background is in Aboriginal Social Work where she had worked for 20 years in Child Welfare and Community Support for Residential School Survivors. She was the Coady International Institute Chair in Social Justice 2017, sharing her teachings on Environmental Racism, Climate Justice, Residential School legacy and social justice issues, including child welfare, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Girls, Climate Justice and Water teachings, inspired and mentored by the late Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, Mother Earth Water Walker. She is featured with other grassroots grandmothers and water protectors in the Environmental Racism documentary on Netflix, There’s Something in the Water, produced by Ellen Page and Ian Daniel.
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie’s course Water and Environmental Justice (Tuesdays from 3-5 pm, New College, University of Toronto).
Event Description:
Dorene Bernard will discuss her work with the film There’s Something in the Water, and her wider experiences as a water protector and water walker working to protect and learn from water. There will be an opportunity for the class to screen the film in advance, and to ask Dorene Bernard their questions.

Climate Grief and Change with Carolynn Crawley
2021-10-26 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
Guest Speaker: Carolynn Crawley
Carolynne Crawley, founder of Msit No’kmaq which translates to All My Relations in Mi’ kmaw, is dedicated to social and environmental justice and supporting Indigenous led community work connected to Indigenous foodways. Carolynne is passionate about reconnecting people with the land, waters, and all beings as there is no separation between us. From Indigenous perspectives across the Earth, they are all our relations to be treated with as much love, respect, and reciprocity as we do with our human loved ones. Carolynne leads workshops that support the development and strengthening of healthy and reciprocal relationships based upon Indigenous knowledges that decolonize existing interactions with the land and with each other. Carolynne is also a certified Forest Therapy Guide, a Blanket Exercise Facilitator, a Holistic Nutritionist, Storyteller, a Co-Producer of the documentary Reckoning with the Wendigo, and a member of the Tkaronto Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle. She also works with Canada’s largest food security organization as the Indigenous Network & Knowledge Sharing senior Specialist. Carolynne has also worked in the Mental Health Sector as a Child & Youth Worker for more than twenty years. Carolynne can be found speaking at events that center around social, food, and environmental justice.
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie’s course Water and Environmental Justice (Tuesdays from 3-5 pm, New College, University of Toronto).
Workshop Description: Indigenous peoples around the Earth deeply understand the interwoven relationships between all beings. Indigenous Elders speak of the individual and collective responsibility we all have to be in a healthy and reciprocal relationship with the Earth, ourselves, and with each other. This may be more important now than any time in history. As we witness and experience the impacts of a climate crisis, global pandemic, and injustices it may be easy to lose hope. Carolynne will focus upon breaking down colonial ways of thinking that intentionally try to separate people from the Earth, by creating an opportunity for reflection and individual change. She will share Indigenous perspectives from Elders in her life that guide people to move through grief and into hope while building responsible and reciprocal relations with the waters and all of their relations. She will offer an opportunity to connect deeper with the waters through guided sensory experiences.

Discussion with Freshwater Labs on water storytelling
2021-09-21 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie’s course Water and Environmental Justice (Tuesdays from 3-5 pm, New College, University of Toronto)
In this class, we will have a joint meeting with the undergraduate and graduate students taking a course with the Freshwater Lab at the University of Illinois-Chicago. We will discuss different strategies for engaging people in telling stories about water: Watermark from Swim Drink Fish, and a Lake Michigan digital storytelling project, and a Chicago River digital storytelling site. Freshwater Lab at UIC is “an initiative to communicate Great Lakes water issues to the general public, create tools to visualize the current state and future scenarios of water sources, engage unaffiliated groups in water planning, and train a new generation of Great Lakes leaders.” Its projects have included organizing Great Lakes summits to create exchanges among universities, grassroots organizers, municipal leaders and students around the Great Lakes, an internship program supporting the development of skills in environmental advocacy and writing which proactively recruits BIPOC students and links them with relevant organizations, The Freshwater Lab course which focuses on a range of forms of environmental writing, a digital story-telling project about Lake Michigan, anti-pipeline projects, and a project about the Chicago River (the “Backward River” ). For more, see: http://www.freshwaterlab.org.

Community Justice Over Pipelines: Panel Discussion with Mining Watch Canada
2021-08-04 15:00 - 17:00 UTC
Guest Panelists:
Princess Edogiawerie: Teacher, Writer, Activist
Yohanna Mehary: Climate Justice TO, Activist & Advocate for Racial Justice
Katherine Minich: Inuit Water Defender, Dept. of Public Policy, X University
Caroline John: Activist & Community Organizer, X University
Join Mining Watch Canada and Water Allies for a panel discussion of Imbolo Imbue’s novel, “How Beautiful We Were“. The novel is grounded in the fictional African town of Kosawa, and details the community’s various experiences with environmental degradation after an oil spill by a U.S. company. Looking at the effects of corporate greed, Imbue centres community and resistance when exploring the long-term effects of extractivism on lands, waters and society. In conversation with the book’s themes, the panel discussion aims to connect How Beautiful We Were to the struggle against pipelines in so-called Canada, and to examine our current global reality of environmental violence, imperialism, extractivism and colonial legacies.
Attendees who register for the event will receive a complimentary PDF copy of Imbolo Imbue’s “How Beautiful We Were” to read prior to the event. Please be aware that you do not need to read the entire book to enjoy the event.

Water, Treaty, Research: The Territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit
2020-11-17 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
Guest Speakers: Nancy Rowe (Elder of Mississauga, Ojibwe of the Anishinaabek Nation located at New Credit First Nation, ON)
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto)
Event Description: Giidaakunadaad (The Spirit who lives in high places), Nancy Rowe is a Mississauga, Ojibwe of the Anishinaabek Nation located at New Credit First Nation, ON. She has been stood up by Chief and Council as an Elder/Knowledge Keeper and Representative for New Credit First Nation. For this event, she will present teachings on water, treaty, and traditional knowledge in the territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit.
She has been a practicing Traditional Knowledge Carrier for 20 years and works with numerous Elders to train in the Ceremonies. Nancy is an educator, consultant, and a Traditional Practitioner of Anishinaabek lifeways, views and customary practices, and holds an honours BA in Indigenous Studies and Political Science, and is currently completing a master’s degree in Environmental Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, with the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council: Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (see below for publications). She also has received a number of other prestigious scholarships and fellowships. She founded and coordinates Akinoomaagaye Gaamik, a grassroots initiative to provide educational opportunities for all people interested in Indigenous perspectives on life, health, education, history, and the environment. She has authored or co-authored several publications, including Rowe 2012, and McCarthy, Millen, Boyden, Alexiuk, Whitelaw, Viswanathan, Larkman, Rowe., and Westley (2014) in Ecology and Society. She is founder/co-director of Akinomaagaye Gammik and has been coordinating projects since 2014. Envisioned in 2010, and built in 2013 under the direction of co-applicant Nancy Rowe, Akinomaagaye Gammik: House of Learning is a grassroots initiative that provides inside and outside space to facilitate, coordinate, partner, promote and fundraise for events and activities that provide local and regional ways of learning and engaging in land-based Indigenous ways of doing, being, and understanding customary practices and languages. The Lodge therefore regularly offers ceremonies and learning events by hosting Elders to share and teach the original thought and practices of Anishinaabek, Cree, and Onkwehonwe Peoples. Akinomaagaye Gammik has many partnerships that receive professional development including FNMIEAO.com, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Ontario Teachers Federation, Ministry of Education, numerous school boards, organizations, programs, and classes. (See the lodge web-site for a list of examples: akinomaagaye.weebly.com).

Please contact waterallies@utoronto.ca for Zoom link on the day of the event.

The People’s Water Campaign and Wellington Water Watchers
2020-11-03 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
Guest Speakers: Mike Balkwill, Campaign Director, Wellington Water Watchers.
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie McElhinny’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto).
Session Description:
Mike will offer a history of, and update on this campaign, including the recent decision of Nestle to withdraw, though now replaced by another water bottling company, and the People’s Water Campaign to restore environmental protections for water security and help build the movement for water justice in Ontario (https://wellingtonwaterwatchers.nationbuilder.com/pwc).
Wellington Water Watchers is a non-profit organization run by volunteer citizens from Guelph-Wellington who are committed to the protection of local water resources and to educating the public about threats to the watershed. Campaigns have included challenges to water mining in southern Ontario by Nestle.
Zoom link will be available on the day of the event. Contact: waterallies@utoronto.ca for inquiries.

There is Something in the Water
2020-10-13 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
Guest Speakers: Ingrid Waldron and Water Protectors: Doreen Bernard & Ducie Howe
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie McElhinny’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto).
Session Description:
The event will discuss the environmental injustice narrative in Nova Scotia that fails to make race an explicit factor within the experiences of marginalized communities. We invite students and guests to screen the movie in advance via Netflix (if possible) prior to the panel discussion with Dr. Waldron and Doreen Bernard. This panel will facilitate a critical dialogue on issues of settler-colonialism, neo-liberalism and environmental racism in Nova Scotia and within Indigenous territories.
The Great Lakes Water Works/Water Allies Project (University of Toronto) directed by Dr. Bonnie McElhinny and the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project (York University) led by Dr. Deborah McGregor welcome Dr. Ingrid Waldron, an associate professor from the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. Waldron is the author of “There Is Something in the Water”, a book turned into a powerful documentary, exposing environmental injustices practiced by the government of Nova Scotia against African Nova Scotians and Mi’kmaq communities. Accompanying Waldron is Doreen Bernard, a Mi’kmaq grassroots Grandmother, residential school survivor and water protector from Indian Brook, Nova Scotia who will share her community’s struggles to protect the water in Mi’qmak territories, demonstrating grassroots initiatives against the poisoning of their people and environments. Ducie Howe will also be a part of the panel who is a Sipekne’katik band member and grassroots elder.
Zoom link will be available day of the event. Contact: waterallies@utoronto.ca for inquiries.

Talking Treaties with Ange Loft
2020-09-29 16:00 - 17:15 UTC
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie McElhinny’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto).
Session Description:
This presentation and workshop reflects on treaty making and upkeep in what is now known as Toronto, through the lens of three main agreements: the Dish with One Spoon; the Covenant Chain and 1764 Treaty of Niagara; and the ‘Toronto Purchase’ with the Mississauga’s of the Credit. Narratives of Nation-to-Nation gift giving, kin building, resource sharing, and the role of oral memory are supported by excerpts from the 2016 Talking Treaties Audio Gallery and the 2019 film “By These Presents: ‘Purchasing’ Toronto”. Glimpses of the multi-year community engaged process reveal the capacity of arts-based learning to foster personalized and active approaches to treaty knowledge.
Ange Loft is an interdisciplinary performing artist and initiator from Kahnawake Kanienkehaka Territory, working in Toronto. She is an ardent collaborator, consultant, facilitator, and mentor working in story weaving, arts-based research, wearable sculpture and Haudenosaunee history. Ange works within the community, art, and education sectors as a speaker, co-creator and advisory member. She’s also a vocalist with the Juno and Polaris nominated band YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN.
Zoom link will be available day of the event. Contact: waterallies@utoronto.ca for inquiries.

Water Ceremony with Dr. Debby Danard
2020-09-22 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
This event is to be aligned with Bonnie McElhinny’s course “Living on the Water” (Tuesday’s 4-6 pm, New College University of Toronto).
Visit from/Water Ceremony with Dr. Debby Danard.
Dr. Debby Wilson Danard is Anishinaabekwe, born in Atikokan Ontario and sturgeon clan member of Manitou Rapids, Rainy River First Nations in Northwestern Ontario. She is a traditional knowledge keeper, artist, lecturer, water ambassador, Life promotion activist and Eagle staff ogitch-e-daakwe. She has a Ph.D. in Aboriginal & Indigenous studies in education from the University of Toronto (2016). Her thesis, “Medicine Wheel Surviving Suicide-Strengthening Life Bundle” (2016), focuses on traditional knowledge life promotion/suicide prevention and water governance. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care and is the founder and owner of Union Star Consulting Life Teachings Lodge (see unionstar.org). She has completed numerous reports on good governance, life promotion and water teachings for Temagami First Nation, Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, Chiefs of Ontario, and the Barrie Area Native Advisory Circle. From July 2019 – June 2021 she is provostial postdoctoral fellow at the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.
Zoom link will be available day of event.
Contact: waterallies@utoronto.ca to receive the link and for inquiries.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: Decolonization: What does it mean to reclaim our bodies with Nazbah Tom (W.2)
2020-06-18
In the second session with Nazbah Tom, using a combination of somatic prompts, conversation, and interactive processes, participants will begin an exploration into their somas (mind/body/spirit).
Nazbah Tom, Diné, is a somatic practitioner. They support individuals and groups through a process of embodied transformation using a combination of conversation, breath work, new skills, bodywork, and gestures. Their work aims to humanize and reconnect us to ourselves, each other, and our land.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: June 18th, 2020

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: Decolonization: What does it mean to reclaim our bodies with Nazbah Tom (W.1)
2020-06-11
Over two sessions, using a combination of somatic prompts, conversation, and interactive processes, participants will begin an exploration into their somas (mind/body/spirit).
Nazbah Tom, Diné, is a somatic practitioner. They support individuals and groups through a process of embodied transformation using a combination of conversation, breath work, new skills, bodywork, and gestures. Their work aims to humanize and reconnect us to ourselves, each other, and our land.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: June 11th, 2020

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: ‘happening’ (Conversation & Activation) with Jenny Blackbird, Karyn Recollet, and special guest Liz Osawamick
2020-06-04 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
We ask, how do we think alongside a strawberry, as a more-than-human relation/as a ready to be worn, or offered-extension of care? What are the concepts and forms, shapes of care, and relationality that does not require a performance of a knowable, consumable packaged Indigenous aesthetic? What are the technologies of emergence that we hold tender and close at this moment in time? How does being in relation with a berry extend into a conversation of critical care-ing technologies?
We ask you to bead alongside us, with us, together, yet not—in this moment of a collective pause.
We will be activating the following provocations:

The first bead reflects and imagines self care
Then expand outwards to imagine future kinds of care and kinship with family and friends
Then expand outwards to imagine future kinds of care and kinship with ancestors and future ancestors.

We ask that you pre-prepare your tool kit in advance of this activation. Here is what you will need:

Beading needle size 11
Thread
Beads

Size 11 beads
Any combination (Red/Black/White)

A circular piece of felt

Liz Osawamick (Giniw Miigwan) is of the Anishinaabe and Odawa Nation and is originally from Wiikwemkong Unceded First Nation located on Manitoulin Island. She is a jingle dress dancer since the early 90’s, inspired by her late sister Lilly Osawamick-Bourgeois. She currently resides with her family in Hastings, Ontario. She is of the beaver clan. She is currently a Native Language teacher with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District school board both Elementary and Secondary level.  She is now currently in her twenty sixth year of teaching at North Shore Public School and thirteenth year of teaching Introduction to Anishinaabemowin at Trent University and Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School.  She also taught the Introduction to Indigenous Music and Dance for four years at Trent.
Liz utilizes Indigenous knowledge and teaching songs and ceremonies as a core component in her teaching methods and community work facilitating various language Immersion programs and cultural teachings within First Nation communities.  She is in her Fifth year as President for Anishnaabemowin-Teg Inc. Originally inspired by Elder Josephine Mandamin, she has been walking for the water in the Mississauga territories of the Kawartha Lakes region for ten years now along with her aunt Shirley Williams and other Anishinaabe-kwewag.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: June 4th, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: Connecting with our First Family: A virtual studio visit with Nyle Johnston (W.2)
2020-05-28 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
This interactive workshop looks to the tradition of storytelling as a foundation for learning. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the use of visual art as a catalyst for student voice and interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
https://ago.ca/exhibitions/storytelling

As the founder of Miigizi Creations, Nyle Johnston offers support to a range of community organizations as a Visual Story Teller, Master Artist, experienced Muralist and Cultural Consultant. His artistic practice is focused on drawing and painting stories of the Anishinaabe Nation in order to raise awareness of their unique histories as they in turn inform his process. He was born and raised on his beautiful reserve on the Saugeen Peninsula (Bruce Peninsula) and took a keen interest in painting at a very young age. Nyle is an Oshkaabewis (Traditional Helper) and has been able to incorporate teachings based on traditional knowledge into each project and artistic endeavor he undertakes. Johnston currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: May 28th, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: "A Pedagogy of Place" - the Simcoe Underpass Mural Project
2020-05-21 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
Tannis Nielsen, (a Métis Woman of Anishnawbe and Danish descent) has twenty years of professional experience in the arts, cultural and community sectors, and twelve years of teaching practice at the post-secondary level. She holds a Masters in Visual Studies Degree (M.V.S.) from the University of Toronto an Art and Art History-Specialist Degree from U of T, as well as a Diploma in Art and Art History from Sheridan College. Tannis’s research and teaching practice engages with the areas of anti-colonial theory, natural law/Indigenous governance, Indigenous arts activism(s), and the relative investigations of Indigenous science and Western quantum physics.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: May 21st, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: Connecting with our First Family: A virtual studio visit with Nyle Johnston (W.1)
2020-05-14 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
This interactive workshop looks to the tradition of storytelling as a foundation for learning. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the use of visual art as a catalyst for student voice and interdisciplinary teaching and learning.
https://ago.ca/exhibitions/storytelling

As the founder of Miigizi Creations, Nyle Johnston offers support to a range of community organizations as a Visual Story Teller, Master Artist, experienced Muralist and Cultural Consultant. His artistic practice is focused on drawing and painting stories of the Anishinaabe Nation in order to raise awareness of their unique histories as they in turn inform his process. He was born and raised on his beautiful reserve on the Saugeen Peninsula (Bruce Peninsula) and took a keen interest in painting at a very young age. Nyle is an Oshkaabewis (Traditional Helper) and has been able to incorporate teachings based on traditional knowledge into each project and artistic endeavor he undertakes. Johnston currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: May 14th, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: Talking Treaties in Tkaronto with Ange Loft
2020-05-07 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
This presentation and workshop reflect on treaty-making and upkeep in what is now known as Toronto, through the lens of three main agreements: the Dish with One Spoon; the Covenant Chain and 1764 Treaty of Niagara; and the ‘Toronto Purchase’ with the Mississaugas of the Credit. Narratives of Nation-to-Nation gift-giving, kin building, resource sharing, and the role of oral memory are supported by excerpts from the 2016 Talking Treaties Audio Gallery and the 2019 film “By These Presents: ‘Purchasing’ Toronto”. Glimpses of the multi-year community-engaged process reveal the capacity of arts-based learning to foster personalized and active approaches to treaty knowledge.

Ange Loft is an interdisciplinary performing artist and initiator from Kahnawake Kanienkehaka Territory, working in Toronto. She is an ardent collaborator, consultant, facilitator and mentor working in story-weaving, arts-based research, wearable sculpture, and Haudenosaunee history. Ange works within the community, art, and education sectors as a speaker, co-creator and advisory member. She’s also a vocalist with the Juno and Polaris nominated band YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN.
Register for the event and join in a conversation with Tannis Nielson on the pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural Project.
Date: May 7th, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings

Welcome to the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub: relations of care for human and more-than-human be-ings, a multiscalar site of Indigenous imaginings, futurisms, and land-ings that call us into radical relationality. The Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub is the first of a three-part series of online research-creation hubs curated by Karyn Recollet, featuring international and national Indigenous knowledge holders entitled: “We prepare a space: Conversations, happenings, and arts-based pedagogy.” The vision for this first iteration is to hold and sustain Indigenous artistic practice in accordance with the creation of radical ethical relationally between ourselves, our more than human kin, and lands. Particularly important are the ways in which we hold space for Ishpaadina as a space of water, land relationship, and celestial relationality. Join us as we transform New College into a hub of ‘happenings’ though conversation, artistic creation, and art-visim .
In May 2020, New College was excited to host an artistic care hub during the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association conference (NAISA), co-curated by Karyn Recollet (Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute) and Jenny Blackbird (Ciimann/Kahuwe’ya/ Qajaq Indigenous Language initiative program coordinator, Centre for Indigenous Studies). As well, the D.G. Ivey Library was excited to host Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto multi-media installation.
With the unfortunate cancellation of NAISA due to COVID-19, the Indigenous Digital Artistic Hub, as an offering to our communities, we, alongside exceptional Indigenous artists and art-ivists offer creative ‘happenings’ including a multi-media ‘happening’ featuring Ange Loft’s Talking Treaties in Tkaronto; a live digital studio visit with Nyle Johnston; a conversation with Tannis Nielson about pedagogy of place and the Simcoe Mural project; an activation of relationality and kinship through bead-work with Naomi Smith; reclaiming our bodies through somatics with Nazbah Tom; and an activation of relations of care through design and applique with Tala Tootoosis.

All Our Relations: Nipissing First Nation and Sovereign Fishing Practices
2020-02-06 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | Room 2007D Wilson Hall, 40 Willcocks Street, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Nicole Latulippe is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Human Geography and Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She has also worked for the Anishinabek Nation on Ipperwash implementation and as a community-based researcher. Her research and teaching interests include the treaty relationship; Indigenous, cross-cultural, and place-based research methodologies; Indigenous geographies; and environmental knowledge, governance, justice and law. Nicole is a treaty person. Her family is French-Canadian from Nipissing and unceded Algonquin territories and she has Anishinaabe ancestry from the Ottawa and Mattagami River areas.
In this talk, Nicole will discuss her community-based research with Nipissing First Nation (NFN); specifically, the responsibilities underpinning community members’ sovereign fishing practices and how NFN has managed to maintain relations with Lake Nipissing, a hotly contested ‘resource’.
“All Our Relations” is a winter talk series which shares stories and insights about water and decolonial water governance from the perspectives of other water beings.
These events are co-sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project at York and Water Allies.
Date: February 6th, 2020
Time: 2:00 pm- 4:00 pm
Location:
Rm 2007D Wilson Hall
40 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6
University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Speaker: Nicole Latulippe

"Being Salmon, Being Human" Storytelling Performance
2020-01-28 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | George Ignatieff Theater, University of Toronto- St. George Campus, 15 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C8, Canada
Artwork by April White www.aprilwhite.com
With permission from Chelsea Green Publishing.
This January, a unique storytelling performance from Norway is coming to Toronto called BEING SALMON, BEING HUMAN. Inspired by Martin Lee Mueller’s award-winning book by the same name, this tour combines traditional tales, original music, and contemporary philosophy.
The performance draws upon the salmon stories of Sami and First Nations peoples of Scandinavia and North America and takes us on a journey through the extraordinary lives of wild salmon — sentient beings who are born in rivers, traverse the oceans, and return towards the end of their lives to spawn in their birth rivers and gift forward more life.
What becomes of this awe-inspiring creature when surviving our dams, diseases, and fish farms, and through this process, what becomes of us? More so, how do salmon survive their erasure from the ancient and reciprocal cycles that have fed humans with nutrients, ritual, and storytelling since time immemorial?
By interweaving old and new stories against a powerful backdrop of traditional song and contemporary sound art, BEING SALMON, BEING HUMAN offers surprising and evocative insights into the vital relationship between humans and the larger living world.
To follow, founder of Toronto Aboriginal Eco Tours, Alan Colley will mediate a discussion on Indigenous knowledge and the local relationship to land, water and environment, making connections to teachings and themes found throughout the performance.
Refreshments will be provided, including cedar tea and smoked trout cream cheese and bannock, courtesy of Alan.
The tour is supported by Performing Arts Hub Norway. Created by philosopher Martin Lee Mueller, renowned Sami Joiker and composer Torgeir Vassvik, Norwegian-British storyteller Georgiana Keable, and Norwegian storyteller Tiril Bryn. When on tour in Canada, performed by Martin Lee Muelle, Torgeir Vassvik, and Canadian dancer and storyteller Elisha MacMillan.
Register at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/being-salmon-being-human-the-performance-and-panel-discussion-tickets-85477025083
PWYC and $20 suggested donation welcomed.
Location:
George Ignatieff Theater, University of Toronto- St. George Campus
15 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON M5S 2C8
Co-Sponsors for this event include:
Water Allies

Great Lakes Commons
https://www.greatlakescommons.org/

Environmental Humanities Group

All Our Relations: Eels and Other Swimmers Teaching Us Life
2020-01-15 16:00 - 18:00 UTC | Room 2007D Wilson Hall, 40 Willcocks Street, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Kristi Leora Gansworth is Anishinaabe poet and geographer and a citizen of Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg. She has ancestry belonging to the Onkwehonwe Haudenosaunee. Her presentation will focus on research related to current and historic relationships between humans and eels. Currently, Leora is a PhD candidate in the department of geography at York University.
“All Our Relations” is a winter talk series which shares stories and insights about water and decolonial water governance from the perspectives of other water beings.
These events are co-sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project at York and Water Allies.

Date: January 15th, 2020
Time: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Location:
Rm 2007D Wilson Hall
40 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON M5S 1C6
University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Speaker: Leora Gansworth

Panel of International Speakers on Global Impact of Nestlé Water Taking: Toronto Event (Nov. 12)
2019-11-12 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Wilson Lounge, New College, University of Toronto, St. George Campus
On Tuesday November 12th, from 7pm-9pm, the second of a series of public events Wellington Water Watchers is sponsoring is taking place in Toronto!
Located at Wilson Hall Lounge, 2nd Floor Wilson Hall @ New College, 40 Willcocks St. Toronto.
RSVP Here: https://wellingtonwaterwatchers.nationbuilder.com/eyes-on-nestle-toronto?utm_campaign=nestle_panel_tour&utm_medium=email&utm_source=wellingtonwaterwatchers
International speakers from communities impacted by Nestlé water taking will speak about their experience opposing Nestlé.
The event will feature Franklin Frederick (Brazilian writer and political/ environmental activist now living in Switzerland), and Bernhard and Rene Lisee Schmitt (founders of Collectif Eau 88 in Vittel France).
Learn about the impact of Nestlé water bottling in communities around the world and learn more about how to take action to protect water and Say No To Nestlé water bottling in Ontario.
Water is a human right and a public trust and should never be under the control of private corporations like Nestlé.

Gathering with the Credit River, July 12-14, 2019
2019-07-12 12:00 - 2019-07-14 12:00 UTC
Niibi Aawin Maadziwin! Water is Life!
OPEN INVITATION TO ATTEND & SUPPORT A GATHERING WITH THE CREDIT RIVER
July 12-14, 2019-Erindale Park, Missisauga, ON.
We are excited and honored to let you know about a gathering with and for the water this summer. It will take place at Erindale Park, in Mississauga, July 12-14, 2019. We invite you to come and meet, discuss and hold ceremony together for the waters for future generations. We will hold water ceremony, share water teachings and offer traditional healing.
All peoples willing to respect the protocols are invited.
Confirmed speakers are:
Autumn Peltier (Wikiwemkong FN)
Doug Sinclair and Katherine Jack (Oigaming FN)
Hohepa Hei (Maori)
We are humbly asking for volunteers and financial or in-kind donations to help with direct costs of the gathering. Also welcome are donations for the giveaway, and use and setup for a tipi.
Rough camping will be available, as well as some availability for trailers. This is an outdoor event: please dress for the weather.
If you wish to help in any way, or are interested in more information, please contact: watergathering2019@gmail.com
Updates are also available on the Facebook event page: Water Gathering with the Credit River: https://www.facebook.com/events/399296264166154/
Miigwetch!

Film Viewing: Water Warriors
2019-03-22 15:30 - 17:30 UTC | 51A Wetmore Hall, New College, 300 Huron Street, Toronto ON, M5S 273
Date: Friday, March 22nd, 2019
Time: 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Location: Room 51A Wetmore Hall, New College, University of Toronto St. George Campus
In honor of World Water Day please join us for the viewing of “Water Warriors” by filmmaker Michael Premo.“Water Warriors” is film about a community’s successful battle against the oil and gas industry in New Brunswick, Canada. When an oil industry starts searching for natural gas, Indigenous and white families get together to send away the company in a campaign to defend their water and traditional way of life. This film viewing is following the Feasting on Forgotten Rivers water walk. Everyone is welcome to rest and gather and engage in discussion and contemplate ways of thinking about water and resistance. Refreshments will be served.
This event will be introduced by Nicole Latulippe who is cross appointed in the Departments of Human Geography and Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her area of focus is Indigenous (Anishinabek) knowledge, governance, and laws concerning the environment (water, fisheries, land, management, environmental justice). She has also worked in First Nations political advocacy with the Union of Ontario Indians. Nicole comes from an area east of North Bay, Ontario, part of Robinson Huron Treaty and unceded Algonquin territories, and homelands of the Nipissing and Algonquin peoples. Nicole is an English-speaking Franco-Ontarian with Algonquin ancestry (Noire River, Allumette Island).

World Water Day Event: Feasting the Forgotten Rivers
2019-03-22 10:00 - 15:00 UTC | Evergreen Brickworks, 550 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON, M4W 3X8, Canada
Date: Friday, March 22nd, 2019
Time: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Meeting at the Children’s Garden at Evergreen Brickworks (550 Bayview Ave, Toronto, ON, M4W 3X8) then walk down to Queens Park to Daniel’s School of Architecture and then finally to Queens Quay.

Finding our way through water paths and life paths, streaming love without end, uncovering ancient waters in Toronto. Please join us in honoring the lost and found waters. Walk with us on World Water Day: Friday, March 22nd, led by traditional life practitioner, Dr. Debby Wilson Danard.

Dr. Debby Danard, an Anishnaabe-kwe from Rainy River First Nation, in North Western Ontario. She is a PhD graduate from University of Toronto, a water walker, advocate and water ambassador who speaks and performs water ceremonies to raise awareness of the spiritual nature and rights of water. She is also a traditional life practitioner and life promotion ambassador and shares these teachings in schools and community organizations.

Agenda:
1) Gather at the Children’s garden at the Brickworks at 10:00 AM coffee/tea snacks will be provided. Begin with territory acknowledgement, ceremonial collection of water from there. Leave at 10:30 AM
2) Walk to Queen’s Park from Brickworks (1 hour/ 3.9 km) approximate time of arrival: 11:30-12:00 PM
3) Take break at Queen’s Park (half an hour) Debby does food offering. Leave at 12:30 PM
4) From Queens Park walk to Spadina and stop at Daniel’s school of Architecture and do food offering. (1.1 km/ 15 mins)
5) Walk down to Lake Ontario at Queen’s Quay to return the water we gathered from the Brickworks and do the final food offering and closing words (45 minutes/3.4 km) 2:00 PM
6) Come back to New College around 3:00-3:30 PM at Wetmore Hall Room 51A (300 Huron Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3J6) where people can convene, watch “Water Warriors” and have something to eat.
Ceremony Protocols:
All are welcome.
No dogs. No bikes/skateboards.
Traditionally women wear long skirts and men long pants to show respect in ceremony.
When we walk, this is a time for prayer or songs for the water and life.
Pregnant women and women on their moon-time will not carry the water during this time, as they are already in ceremony.
Men carry the Eagle Feather Staff, in balance with the water, when there are no male participants, then women will carry the staff.
Gchi’miigwech Grandmother Josephine Mandaamin, for teaching us the protocols and leading the way forward honouring the water.

Stories and Sovereignty: Winter Tales of Water and Love - Walking for the Water
2019-03-07 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto)
Walking for the Water

Date: Thursday, March 7th, 2019
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: HNES Building, Rm. 140, York University
Speaker or Panel: Kelsey Leonard

Kelsey Leonard
Kelsey Leonard is a PhD candidate from the Department of Political Science at McMaster University and the first Native American woman to earn a science degree from the University of Oxford, which she earned in 2012, she has an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from St. Cross College, Her master’s thesis, “Water Quality For Native Nations: Achieving A Trust Responsibility”, discusses water quality regulation and how water resources on tribal land are not protected. Kelsey strives to be a strong advocate for the protection of Indigenous waters through enhanced inter-jurisdictional coordination and meaningful consultation. She has been instrumental in protecting the interests of Tribes with the development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Action Plan and building a sustainable ocean future by valuing Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge. A part of her research has been creating dialogue with the Great Lake Water Walkers to better understand the threats to water protection in the Great Lakes, representing a call to action for Indigenous water governance. Accompanying Kelsey are a panel of Water Walkers who will share their stories, struggles and experiences.

Wild Rice and Indigenous Rights: A Conversation with Drew Hayden Taylor and James Whetung
2019-02-13 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1X3, Canada
Facilitator: TBD
Date: February 13th
Time: 5:00PM – 7:00PM
Location: Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Ave.) The nearest TTC Stop is Dupont Station. Click here for more information on how to get there.
Description: As part of the Stories and Sovereignty: Winter Tales of Water and Love speaker series, playwright Drew Hayden Taylor and wild rice activist James Whetung will join in conversation about the work that Whetung does in restoring wild rice plants to the lakes of Northern Ontario and about the creation of the play Cottagers and Indians. Now playing at Tarragon Theatre the piece is a battle royal between a native farmer and a white cottager, whose increasingly bitter dispute becomes a microcosm for reconciliation.
This talk session is free. If you are planning on attending the performance at 8:00, after the talk, please use the coupon code BONNIE2019 to get 20% off your tickets.30 Bridgman Ave30 Bridgman Ave

Stories and Sovereignty: Winter Tales of Water and Love – Nibi Onje Biimaadiiziiwin: Water is Life
2019-01-15 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Toronto) | Wilson Hall, New College, University of Toronto, 40 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C6, Canada
Date: Tuesday, January 15th, 2019
Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: 2007D Wilson Hall, New College, University of Toronto (St. George Campus)
Panel: Sue Chiblow (PhD, York University) Deborah McGregor (Osgoode Hall) Aimee Craft (Lawyer, University of Ottawa)

Nibi Onje Biimaadiiziiwin: Water is Life brings together three esteemed Indigenous scholars to lead a panel and share knowledge on their stories, experiences and research, to foster dialogue on Indigenous water law and concerns facing our waters and Indigenous communities today. We welcome Sue Chiblow of Garden River First Nation, a PhD student at York University’s Environmental Studies program, examining humanity’s relationship with water, Aimee Craft (Anishinaabe-Métis) who is assistant professor at the Faculty of Common law at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Anishinaabe and Canadian Aboriginal law, and Deborah McGregor, a cross-appointed professor at York University from Osgoode Hall and the Faculty of Environmental Studies, whose research focuses on Indigenous knowledge systems and their various applications toward water, environmental governance and environmental justice. Together these scholars aim to create conversations to support further knowledge and research on water and Indigenous legal traditions.

Sue Chiblow
Sue is from Garden River First Nation. She has worked extensively with First Nation communities in environmental related fields and has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Environment and Management. She is currently pursuing a PhD in the Environmental Studies program at York University. Her PhD research examines humanity’s relationship to water and efforts on improvement for humans, animals and finding reconciliation with water itself.

Aimee Craft
Since 2013, Craft has lead research on Anishinaabe water law. An Indigenous lawyer (Anishinaabe-Métis), Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Common law at University of Ottawa and an Adjunct Professor in Law at the University of Manitoba, her expertise is in Anishinaabe and Canadian Aboriginal law. Professor Craft is one of the lead researchers on Water sustainability and indigenous laws and on hydo-impacted communities in Northern Manitoba. In 2016 she was voted one of the top 25 most influential lawyers in Canada.

Deborah McGregor
Professor Deborah McGregor joined York University’s Osgoode Hall law faculty in 2015 as a cross-appointee with the Faculty of Environmental Studies. Professor McGregor’s research has focused on Indigenous knowledge systems and their various applications in diverse contexts including water and environmental governance, environmental justice, forest policy and management, and sustainable development. Her research has been published in a variety of national and international journals and she has delivered numerous public and academic presentations relating to Indigenous knowledge systems, governance and sustainability. Professor McGregor, who is Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario, is the Primary Investigator on two current SSHRC-funded projects: Indigenous Environmental (In)Justice: theory and practice and Indigenizing the First Nations Land Management Regime.

Stories and Sovereignty: Winter Tales of Water and Love - “What we do to the Water, We do to ourselves”
2019-01-10 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Wilson Hall, New College, University of Toronto, 40 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1C6, Canada
Date: January 10th, 2019
Time: 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm
Location: Room 2007D Wilson Hall, New College, University of Toronto (St. George Campus)
Speaker: Dr. Debby Danard
Dr. Debby Danard, an Anishnaabe-kwe from Rainy River First Nation will be performing a water ceremony and sharing Indigenous water teachings as a way to challenge the way people think about water that go beyond law, policy and citizen science. In 2006, Danard went on her first water walk and it was after this she started thinking of water through ceremony. Her knowledge and experience will be sure to change the way we consider water and help us identify with water as humans, as this can help bring things back into balance. As Deborah says, “what we do to the water, we do to ourselves!”
Anishnaabekwe (Ojibway) from Rainy River first Nation in North Western Ontario. She is a PhD graduate from University of Toronto, a water walker, advocate and water ambassador who speaks and performs water ceremonies to raise awareness of the spiritual nature and rights of water. She is also a traditional life practitioner and life promotion ambassador and shares these teachings in schools and community organizations.

Contact Photography Festival
2018-05-10 - 2018-05-20
May 10-20 CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY: 10 days of Events at New College in partnership with film-maker Dan Berman and the Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto.
More info soon.

All Nations Water Ceremony
2018-04-14 09:00 - 19:00 UTC | 262 Concession Road 2 E Tiny ON Canada, 262 Concession Road 2 E Tiny ON Canada, Tiny, Ontario, Canada
On April 14th, 2018 All Nations will be Gathering on the Worlds Purest known Aquifer in a form of extended ceremony for the Water.
It will be an all day event leading up to the ceremony:
• Information sharing about the Alliston Aquifer
• Guest speakers including Josephine Mandamin Autumn Peltier, Candace Day Neveau, Becky BigCanoe, Liz Osawamick, Tasha Beeds — we are awaiting confirmation of more speakers.
• Setting Intentions and Prayer Poles led by Elizabeth Brass Elson of Dumpsite 41 & WaterWalkers from For Earth & Water Walk 2017
• Stephanie Peltier will lead a dance from a dream she received. Women are asked to participate in this dance and be prepared by wearing skirts, jingle dresses or traditional clothing. We are hoping for about 200 dancers or more.
• Josephine Mandamin will then lead the water ceremony inside the circle we are creating. The ceremony itself will be continuous singing and prayer for the water contained in all the copper vessels. Everyone is required to bring a copper vessel.
• A feast will follow at the Waverly centre
**More details will be provided as to the ceremony, the logistics and event details in coming days**
**Everyone is asked to bring a copper vessel with them, a feast bundle, a reusable water jug, and a contribution of food or donation to cover costs of the feast**
**Please plan for rain and cold weather. DRESS WARM, bring an umbrella, a blanket or lawn chair for this outdoor event. It will go on rain or shine**
**We kindly ask for your understanding in that this event is not a protest or political rally. It is a ceremony intended to bring about healing through the water, to lift each other up, and to create greater awareness**
Facebook Event Page Link
