Led by Dr. Jon Johnson (University of Toronto, Woodsworth College) and Dr. Jill Carter (University of Toronto, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies; Transitional Year Programme & Indigenous Studies)

Much of contemporary and historic relationships, injustices, and struggles related to Indigenous nations in Canada is rooted in treaties. Join Dr. Jon Johnson and Dr. Jill Carter, and others from First Story Toronto for a virtual walk and interactive discussion of places and stories that exemplify some of the historic and contemporary treaties of the Toronto area. Stories will focus on injustice, Indigenous resistance and resilience, and our collective ongoing treaty responsibilities with First Nations communities.

Graphic by Mariah Meawasige (@Makoose)

Jill Carter is Based in Tkaron:to where she was born and largely raised, Jill Carter is an Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi theatre-practitioner, researcher and educator at the University of Toronto. Her research and praxis base themselves in the mechanics of story creation (devising and dramaturgy), the processes of delivery (performance on the stage and on the page), and the mechanics of Affect. She has worked with Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble (Assistant Dramaturg and Performer), and the Chocolate Woman Collective (Researcher, Assistant Director, Remount Director, Workshop Director),).  In 2019, she co-devised and directed Encounters at the Edge of the Woods - the first Indigenous show in the century-long life of Hart House Theatre. And recently, she served as co-devisor, land-based dramaturg, and performance director of Streaming Life: Storying the 94 a site-specific truth activation on the grounds of the home occupied by Sir John A. Macdonald in the year he signed the Indian Act into Canadian legislation. She remains an active member of the Talking Treaties Collective, founder of the Collective Encounter, and serves as researcher and tour guide for First Story, Toronto with which she also devises land activations, mapping interventions, and personal cosmography workshops.

Jon Johnson. Prior to joining Woodsworth College in 2018, Jon Johnson taught at York University and in the Transitional Year Program at the University of Toronto. His research is focused on urban land-based Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto and their representation through oral and digital forms of storytelling. He works actively within Toronto’s Indigenous community in his capacity as a lead organizer for First Story Toronto, an Indigenous-led community-based organization that researches and shares Toronto’s Indigenous presence through popular education initiatives such as storytelling tours of the city and its freely-available smartphone application. He practices forms of teaching and pedagogy, such as field trips, tours, and community-based social justice projects, that go beyond the classroom. He is particularly interested in projects that create mutually respectful and beneficial collaborations between Indigenous communities and the university.