my HOME office is located on first nations land.

My kitchen table home office is situated on land that was the traditional territory of many nations including

the Wendat,

the Anishnaabeg,

Haudenosaunee,

Chippewa,

Métis,

and the Mississaugas of the Credit,

the latter of whom completed negotiation of a Treaty No. 13 known as the “Toronto Purchase” begun in 1787, negotiated in 1805, and re-negotiated in 2010.

It was a sandy, oak savannah on a hill rising westward from Heward Creek, one of Toronto’s lost ravines (with current ones showcased in An Enduring Wilderness).

In the 1880s, the land was developed as part of a growing community around St. Matthew’s Anglican and other churches.

Starting in the 1950s, our neighbourhood was transformed by immigrants fleeing the Vietnam War and Chinese Canadians dispossessed by the building of Nathan Phillips Square and subsequent rise in real estate value in other Chinatowns.

Our area became known as “East Chinatown.” A local restaurant was used as a location in the filming of A Christmas Story.

We are grateful to those who cared for the land before us, and are proud to be working amidst this mix of cultures.

Thank you to ECWPress for letting me borrow this most beautifully-written acknowledgment. Glad to share an existence in East Chinatown with you :)