“Toronto Has No History!”: Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada’S Largest City
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Document generated on 09/24/2021 7:42 a.m. Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine “Toronto Has No History!” Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada’s Largest City Victoria Freeman Encounters, Contests, and Communities: New Histories of Race and Article abstract Ethnicity in the Canadian City In 1884, during a week-long commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Volume 38, Number 2, printemps 2010 Toronto’s incorporation in 1834, tens of thousands celebrated Toronto’s history and its relation to British colonialism and imperialism. The author’s analysis of URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/039672ar the historical tableaux in the first day’s parade and speeches by Daniel Wilson, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/039672ar president of University College, and Chief Samson Green of the Tyendinaga Mohawks reveals divergent approaches to commemoration as “politics by other means”: on one hand, the erasure of the area’s Indigenous past and the See table of contents celebration of its European future, on the other, an idealized view of the past of Indigenous–settler partnership that ignores the role of local settlers in the dispossession of the Mississaugas. The 1884 commemoration marks the Publisher(s) transition from the founding of the settlement in 1793 to its incorporation in 1834 as the city’s “founding moment” and marker of the assumed “indigeneity” Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine of settler-immigrants. The deed acquired from the Mississaugas in the Toronto Purchase of 1787 is deemed irrelevant, while the 1834 Act of Incorporation ISSN becomes the symbolic deed to Toronto’s modernity. 0703-0428 (print) 1918-5138 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Freeman, V. (2010). “Toronto Has No History!”: Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada’s Largest City. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 38(2), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.7202/039672ar Tous droits réservés © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 2010 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ “Toronto Has No History!” Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Historical Memory in Canada’s Largest City Victoria Freeman In 1884, during a week-long commemoration of the fiftieth anniver- Pungent smoke rising from an abalone shell and fanned by an eagle sary of Toronto’s incorporation in 1834, tens of thousands celebrated feather marked the beginning of the official celebration of the 175th Toronto’s history and its relation to British colonialism and impe- anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Toronto on Friday, 6 rialism. The author’s analysis of the historical tableaux in the first March 2009. Before a sparse crowd at Nathan Phillips Square, Peter day’s parade and speeches by Daniel Wilson, president of University Schuler, an elder of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, College, and Chief Samson Green of the Tyendinaga Mohawks reveals explained the meaning of the smudging ceremony as a ritual of purifica- divergent approaches to commemoration as “politics by other means”: tion and then offered “a history lesson.” He explained that according to on one hand, the erasure of the area’s Indigenous past and the celebra- tradition Toronto had been one of the stopping places of his ancestors tion of its European future, on the other, an idealized view of the past on the Great Migration of the Anishinaabeg from the east coast.1 “We of Indigenous–settler partnership that ignores the role of local settlers stayed quite a while,’ he added, but “in 1847 we were removed from in the dispossession of the Mississaugas. The 1884 commemoration this place.” He paused before continuing somewhat bemusedly: “I’m marks the transition from the founding of the settlement in 1793 to its asked to come and celebrate this city but the city itself kind of moved incorporation in 1834 as the city’s “ founding moment” and marker of us out.” the assumed “indigeneity” of settler-immigrants. The deed acquired This was an assertion of a history that remains unknown to most Toron- from the Mississaugas in the Toronto Purchase of 1787 is deemed irrel- tonians, who generally seem to reflect the attitude that Toronto has little evant, while the 1834 Act of Incorporation becomes the symbolic deed history worth remembering . and certainly very little Indigenous his- to Toronto’s modernity. tory worth remembering. History does not form a large part of the city’s urban mythology or tourism promotion, and there is no museum or En 1884, au cours d’une semaine complète d’événements commémo- large-scale institution devoted to the whole span of the city’s history or rant le 50e anniversaire de l’incorporation de Toronto en 1834, des that situates the history of Toronto in a larger context. While Indigenous dizaines de milliers de gens fêtent l’histoire de Toronto et sa relation people have lived in the Toronto region for at least eleven thousand avec le colonialisme et l’impérialisme britannique. Une analyse des years and the original peoples who have made this territory their home fresques historiques du défilé de la première journée des célébrations over the last several hundred years have included the Wendats (Hurons), et de discours prononcés par Daniel Wilson, président de l’University Tionnontati (Petuns), Senecas, and Mississaugas (Ojibwa, Chippewa, College, et par le chef de Samson Green des Mohawks de Tyendinaga Anishinaabeg), there is “little widespread awareness of the depth of this dévoile de divergentes approches relatives à la commémoration pre-contact settlement history, or general knowledge of the societies comme « politique par d’autres moyens » : d’une part, le camou- that inhabited Ontario prior to the onset of Euro-Canadian settlement,” flage du passé indigène de la région et la célébration de son avenir according to a report prepared for the city in 2004.2 Even rarer is the européen, de l’autre, une vision idéalisée du partenariat passé entre admission by non-Indigenous Torontonians that colonialism has shaped peuples autochtones et colons qui ignore la rôle de ces derniers dans la both the city’s history and public memory of the region’s past. dépossession des Indiens de Mississauga. La commémoration de 1884 Yet, as Jordan Stanger-Ross, Coll Thrush, Penelope Edmonds, and marque la transition entre la fondation du village en 1793 et l’incor- others have documented, urban or municipal colonialism has been a poration de la ville en 1834 comme « moment fondateur » et symbole key element of the settler colonial project.3 Indeed, the settler colonial de la supposée « autochtonie » des colons immigrants. Le titre de city has often been viewed by colonizers and colonized alike as the propriété acquis des Mississaugas lors de l’achat de Toronto en 1787 “consummation of empire.”4 Cities have been seen as the “ultimate est jugé sans importance, tandis que la Loi d’incorporation de 1834 avatars of . progress, representing the pinnacle of technology, com- devient l’acte symbolique de la modernité de Toronto. merce, and cultural sophistication,” at the same time as they have obliterated the Indigenous landscape of the past.5 Because cities have been hubs of broader networks of power, engines driving regional 21 Urban History Review / Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XXXViII, No. 2 (Spring 2010 printemps) “Toronto Has No History!” economies, and places where settler populations and resources were Cities, no less than nations, articulate founding moments in their concentrated, cities have been important sites where colonial relations efforts to define themselves. The vision of the past articulated through were enacted6 and have played a major role in the development and commemoration is guided by the needs of the present, as Harold diffusion of national, colonial, and imperial ideas and practices.7 In fact, Berubé’s contrast of the commemorative practices of Montreal and as Stanger-Ross and Edmonds have argued, the social, political, and Toronto illustrates; each city turned to the “first moments” that best cultural processes of urban development have themselves constituted articulated current sensibilities and aspirations.18 What is interesting a specific modality of colonialism.8 Recent studies of colonial processes about Toronto’s history of civic commemoration is that the “founding in Seattle, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver, and Melbourne have dem- moment” celebrated has generally not been the European founding of onstrated that different urban settings produced very different colonial the settlement in 1793 but the city’s incorporation in 1834. The shift in landscapes and spatial politics, which in some instances were distinct the “founding moment” from 1793 to 1834 appears to have occurred from larger regional or national dynamics.9 As Edmonds notes, “These at the 1884 semi-centennial, which was the first major commemora- varying colonial economic and discursive formations came to frame tive event in the city’s history. Civic leaders chose to commemorate particular Indigenous subjectivities and their representations.”10 All of Toronto’s status as the