Teaching Tkaronto: Local and Land-Based Classroom Teaching

 One block west to us is Spadina Road, which comes from the Ojibwe word “ishpadinaa” meaning “a place on a hill”. If we look a bit to the north we find “Gete-Onigaming” (Ge-de-oh-ni-guh-ming) or “old portage” or “Davenport” which references the trail between the Don and Humber Rivers which we sit between today.  

As Sara Roque and Selena Mills say, “Davenport may be another street I walk down, but it’s not just another thoroughfare, for me it’s a ancient portage trail that holds indigenous knowledge.”  

If we look to the East, we will find Philosopher’s Walk, or Taddle Creek, or Ziibiing from the Anishinaabemowin word for “river.”  

This workshop considers the histories and presents of the lands we teach on at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus. Integrating resources like Native Land Digital, Driftscape and UofT research guides (“Tkaronto History”) we will discuss the varieties of ways we can re-connect with the land in the varied disciplinary contexts of our classroom.  

In the first portion of the workshop we’ll be discussing place-based, walking-based, and indigenous pedagogies and discuss possible directions for reflection, assignments/activities. The second portion of the workshop we will go on a walking tour around campus.