Healthy Communities
10 learning resources to explore this Treaties Recognition Week: November 1–5, 2021
19 October 2021 - by YMCA of Greater Toronto
First introduced by the provincial government in 2016, Treaties Recognition Week takes place during the first week of November in the province of Ontario. This week serves to highlight and educate settlers about the nation-to-nation agreements that form the foundation of our cities, provinces and this country. These treaties uphold Indigenous land rights, education, health care, resources including water and much more. Indigenous people continue to uphold their end of the agreement but in most instances, Canada has willfully ignored these treaties in the name of expansion.
We are all treaty people
Ontario is covered by more than 40 Treaties and other agreements. Do you know which treaty (if any) covers the land that you live and work on? What do you acknowledge when you hear or read a Land Acknowledgement? In the Greater Toronto Area, we are all treaty people. This means we have an obligation to understand and honour the rights and responsibilities of these agreements.
To learn more about the treaties that govern this province, the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s Indigenous Reconciliation Working Group curated the following resources and reading lists. We encourage you to engage with the resources, share them, and continue to learn about settler obligations to both truth and to reconciliation.
Resources for adults
Resources for children
Photo credit–Ontario.ca.
We are all treaty people
Ontario is covered by more than 40 Treaties and other agreements. Do you know which treaty (if any) covers the land that you live and work on? What do you acknowledge when you hear or read a Land Acknowledgement? In the Greater Toronto Area, we are all treaty people. This means we have an obligation to understand and honour the rights and responsibilities of these agreements.
To learn more about the treaties that govern this province, the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s Indigenous Reconciliation Working Group curated the following resources and reading lists. We encourage you to engage with the resources, share them, and continue to learn about settler obligations to both truth and to reconciliation.
Resources for adults
- Video – How treaties affect all aspects of life with Robert Greene, Knowledge Keeper: Treaty 3.
- Recorded webinar – WAMPAM TALK: We Are All Treaty People, via the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Week programming.
- Virtual exhibit – The James Bay Treaty; exploring the making, signing and archival history of this agreement.
- Video – What does unceded territory mean? With Dalhousie professor Patricia Doyle-Bedwell.
- Online course – We Are All Treaty People via University of Toronto, OISE.
- Reading list for adults – Toronto Public Library, including documentaries.
- National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation – Reports, including Calls to Action, The Inuit and Northern Experience and The Metis Experience.
Resources for children
- Video – What is a promise? With Chad Solomon, Artists and Storyteller, Treaty 13
- Reading list for children – GoodMinds.com
- Educational package for children – Treaties and the Treaty Relationship; Free educational packages for children from Grades 2–7 and from Grades 7–12.
Photo credit–Ontario.ca.
