LAN3016Y F
Instructor(s): Liat Margolis
Meeting Section: L0101
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm; Friday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm

Studio Context

In the wake of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the University of Toronto struck a steering committee to guide its response. The result was a series of Calls to Action outlined in “Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin.” Among the Calls to Action was the need for a new relationship with the Indigenous community and specific recommendations around the importance of Indigenous spaces. As part of enacting the Calls, Hart House wanted to consider how Hart House Farm, a 150-acre property in Caledon, Ontario within the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, managed by Hart House and used for a range of outdoor, co-curricular opportunities, might contribute to realizing the commitments made in Wecheehetowin. Hart House convened a conversation with the U of T Office of Indigenous Initiatives and the Elders Circle at the Farm in the summer of 2019. The Circle advised about the use of the Farm as a space for intergenerational connection and community building, knowledge exchange, cultural learning, wellness, healing, ceremony and ultimately, as a space that might contribute to reconciliation. Hart House is currently working on a long-term planning process, with a focus on gathering information, toward completion by Spring of 2024.

This MLA Advanced Research Studio will make a significant contribution to the development of this long-term plan by deeply exploring and considering the land the Farm is situated on to understand its historical and future contexts, rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and ecological health, expanding our ideas about what they should consider and what may be possible in this space from the lens of landscape architecture and ecological conservation and restoration. Ultimately, this work will fold into the Hart House’s planning process as a resource, supporting the conversations they engage in, and the possibilities we explore as they map out a future with respect to how the U of T community and any future academic and non-academic partners engage with the land.

Site Context

The Hart House Farm property includes 150-acres that are nestled in the Caledon Hills, north of the Cheltenham Badlands. A third of the site falls within the Niagara Escarpment protection area, which stretches 725 km along the entire eastern edge of the Bruce Peninsula, a globally significant area covering 1,700 km2 at the tip of which lies Bruce Peninsula National Park. A sedimentary landform formed over millions of years ago, the Niagara Escarpment is a UNSECO Biosphere which represents the largest contiguous stretch of primarily forested land in south-central Ontario. The biosphere reserve includes the greatest topographic variability in southern Ontario, with habitats ranging over more than 430 m in elevations and including Great Lakes coastlines, cliff edges, talus slopes, wetlands, woodlands, limestone alvar pavements, oak savannahs, conifer swamps and many others. These habitats collectively boast the highest level of species diversity among Canadian biosphere reserves. The site is also adjacent to the Bruce Trail, one of Ontario’s largest land trusts and Canada’s longest marked footpath which stretches from Tobermory to Niagara.

Geologically, the site sits on a ribbon of sandstone, and has 2 of 13 decommissioned quarries in the region, which were the source for any of the late 1800s buildings in Toronto, including Queens Park. Other parts of the site were used for silviculrure and agriculture at various periods. Post-acquisition by the University of Toronto in the 1950s major mining and agricultural activities stopped and the site was primarily used for co-curricular student activities, and more recently Indigenous land-based education courses, and community engagement. Decades-old practices of mowing fields are still pursued with some featuring early succession along with invasive species. Therein lies an opportunity to reconsider the ecological management of this site in context of larger territorial and ecological boundaries and continuities that extend beyond the 150-acre property ownership boundary.

Given the current and ongoing process by the Hart House staff to develop a strategic plan, as well as their commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, there is an opportunity to inform the University on the potential role that they could have in ecological conservation and restoration, biodiversity, species at risk, etc. including partnering up with the various conservation agencies in the area. As well as an opportunity to become an educational and research hub in partnership with Indigenous guardian programs, land-based cultural training, food sovereignty programs (e.g. food forest, seed keeping, foraging, etc.) and other ideas.

Studio Approach

The studio’s design research approach is framed around a partnership with Hart House and in collaboration by associated treaty holders, governing bodies and conservancies, including:

1. Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, treaty rights;
2. Niagara Escarpment Commission, regulatory body of the Niagara Escarpment UNSECO Biosphere Reserve;
3. Credit Valley Conservation, primary scientific authority for the watershed that works with municipalities, landowners, community organizations, schools and businesses to support planning, conservation, land stewardship, environmental monitoring;
4. Bruce Trail Conservancy, one of Ontario’s largest land trusts and steward of Canada’s longest marked footpath;
5. Town of Caledon Heritage Department, municipality and archeological records.

All the above agencies have shared archival and digital data that is not public with this MLA studio and agreed to support our work through onsite meetings and discussions. Interestingly, while these organizations overlap through their scope of work, they each hold very different data sets, analytical reports and stewardship plans which are motivated by very different histories, perspectives, methodologies, disciplines, and mandates. To date, there is no singe repository of data or shared mapping of this site and region. In this studio, we have the unique opportunity to examine side by side all these sources, including oral histories, archival documents, digital maps, and generate a more fulsome understanding of the environmental history of this site and region that would allow for a cross-institutional sharing and dialogue.

Studio Structure

The studio will have 3 major components:

1. Environmental history multi-method research, including archival research, GIS and Lidar site modeling, stakeholder interviews, site characterization, and analytical and generative mapping of all data sources from contributing partners.
2. A survey of Indigenous-led, land-based initiatives at regional and national scales, e.g. Alderville First Nation Black Oak Savannah, Tyendinaga Seed Sanctuary, Rice Lake Wild Rice Restoration, Kayanase Ecological Restoration, Indigenous Guardianship Program, etc.
3. Design proposals and management plans that explore the future of HHF as a regional and national locus for Indigenous-led land-based teaching, research and guardianship training programs.

Research Methods:

To undertake the environmental history mapping, we will have three complimentary research and visualization workshops, which will form the basis for design proposals:

1. Oral History and Ethnographic Mapping: methods coming from the fields of human geography, anthropology, community engagement, and digital mapping – social science and archival research methods and approached to interpret local knowledge (by holders of local ecological knowledge) into digital data and merged with other data sources. We will discuss ethical challenges of interpreting/ representing Indigenous sovereignty by non-Indigenous people / entities. We will also learn about and discuss the difficulty of understanding territorial claims.
2. LiDAR processing for site analysis and 3D design: this workshop will complement the above workshop and focus on fundamentals of processing Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for the purposes of site analysis and generating a 3D site model. We will use the software, Global Mapper Pro, to classify LiDAR data, generate various representations of terrain, complete myriad analyses, and export them for use in Rhino and other software. We will learn how to use QGIS to geo-reference archival maps and create new GIS classes and features for import into Rhino models.
3. Indigenous land-use/traditional knowledge studies: Indigenous lead conservation and restoration, land-based practices and protocols, ecological monitoring, Community Engagement Protocols, Indigenous-led Guardianship Programs.

Travel and Field Research:

We have the opportunity to visit and stay overnight at the HHF from Sept 18-20 and Sept 25-26. HHF has offered us to stay in newly constructed cabins onsite. The main farm house has a communal kitchen and meeting area where we will share meals and meet with studio partners. The site visits will offer opportunities for guided field research in conjunction with the above workshops and in collaboration with our studio partners.