Where Histories Meet

If you grew up near Toronto, you likely visited Black Creek Pioneer Village. The museum was created in 1960 to share the living history of the settler Stong family and their peers. But the story is bigger than the Stongs, so in 2017, the museum and other stakeholders embarked on the Changing the Narrative project to widen the lens of the village’s tale. One result of that effort is Where Histories Meet.

This title explores the history of the people who lived in Toronto and nearby. It sits firmly between the 1780s and 1876, an era of Indigenous self-government and colonial efforts to undermine that, ending with the Indian Act.

Writer Victoria Freeman, a non-Indigenous public historian, worked with the Mississaugas of the Credit, Chippewas of Rama, Six Nations of the Grand River, Chippewas of Georgina Island and Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nations. The result is a timely teaching tool on our responsibilities as treaty people.