EUC Seminar Series to discuss the Toronto Purchase

A dirt road surrounded by nature

The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) Seminar Series Polishing the Chain: Treaty Relations in Toronto continues Monday, Feb. 14 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. to discuss “The So-Called Toronto Purchase.”  

This is the fifth seminar in the Polishing the Chain, 2021-2022 EUC Seminar Series. The event will welcome panel speakers Margaret Sault, acting executive director of intergovernmental affairs for the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN); former chief of the MCFN, Bryan LaForme; and Carolyn King, former chief of the MCFN and director of the Moccasin Identifier Project. The panel will discuss Mississauga’s history and knowledge of Treaty 13, also known as the 1787/1805 Toronto Purchase

The panel will highlight the spirit and intent of the Toronto Purchase. The discussion will focus on the authority or recognition that has come out of the Toronto Purchase specific claim settlement with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. It will also share what efforts are underway for the Mississaugas to maintain and strengthen relations with the Lands and waters of the GTA.  

Polishing the Chain brings together Indigenous and allied scholars, knowledge holders, artists, Earth workers and activists to explore the historical significance and contemporary relevance of the treaties that Indigenous nations in southern Ontario have made with each other, with the land and with the Crown. It also looks at the spirit and intent of Toronto treaties; the ways Indigenous Peoples have upheld and continue to uphold them; the extent to which they are and are not reflected in contemporary Indigenous and state relations; and the treaty responsibilities of both settler and Indigenous Torontonians. 

This year’s EUC Seminar Series is organized by Assistant Professor Martha Stiegman, and presented in partnership with York’s Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages, Associate Professor Deborah McGregor’s Indigenous Environmental Project, and Jumblies Theatre & Art’s Talking Treaties. It is supported by the Toronto Biennial of Art, Vice-President Research & Innovation, the Indigenous Teaching and Learning Fund, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University Faculty Association – Community Projects, and Associate Professor and Environmental Arts & Justice Coordinator Lisa Myers’ York Research Chair in Indigenous Curatorial Practice.  

The event will take place via Zoom. The final event of the series, “We are all Treaty People,” will take place on Monday, March 14, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. For more information about the seminar series, email polishingthechain@gmail.com.