“There is a story I know. It’s about the earth and how it floats in space on the back of a turtle. I’ve heard this story many times, and each time someone tells the story, it changes. Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the storyteller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other times it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience. But in all the tellings of all the tellers, the world never leaves the turtle’s back. And the turtle never swims away.”
– Thomas King The Truth About Stories
North America is Turtle Island. And the first person on it was Sky Woman who fell from Sky World on to turtle’s back. The first thing she asked the sea creatures was to bring her some mud. So otter swam to the very bottom of the sea and brought back some mud. Sky Woman used the mud to make land on turtle’s back. Here she gave birth to twin sons. Together, her children created humans. The humans remembered their mother because the land still carried them. Mother land could not get any more real.
This is a history that matters. I encourage you to find more histories because all of them matter. Let’s look at another history. Remember its not the only one.
From a compilation of Southern Ontario archaeological records and the only book I can find about the history of Toronto written by a Native, I uncover some information about the people who lived on the land I call home. About 11 500 B.P. (before present) archaeological sites reveal groups of people who are hunters and nomads. This is unveiled from the evidence of settler sites ageing tens of thousands of years old.
Continue reading Re(story)ing Canada’s Diverse City
