On this land in which we play,
Reminders from past
and present days.
Like the Black Oak Savannah
from 4,000 years ago -
Where the humming dog day cicadas
and migrating monarchs
like to roam.
The grassland prairie requires the fires
Of First Nations
up to this very day.
To ignite the seeds,
so the trees can breed
And eliminate pests
that carry disease.
Along the breezy shores of Grenadier,
Where the painted turtles
hatch on sand
to swim near -
There are sakura blossoms
gifted from friends in Japan
and the Ukrainian statue
of the east
that holds our hands.
As we cross streets,
once used alongside Carrying Place Trail paths
we climb past Hawk Hill maples
in order to relax.
This place was preserved
As a city grew,
And so future generations
could love it too.
Land Research:
The story of High Park’s land begins personally for me in 2021, when I started running childcare programs along its versatile spaces each season. I had never spent time in this park before. I only knew it was significantly large and that people liked to picnic here in the summer.
The most familiar tale that Torontonians know of High Park is associated with the Toronto land surveyor, John Howard and his wife Jemima. These two purchased 66 hectares of this wooded lot in 1836. A year later, they built the Colborne Lodge and named their estate, “High Park” because it was the highest point in the area.
By 1873, they deeded that the property would be used as a “public park for the free use benefit and enjoyment of citizens in Toronto, forever.” In the first decades, little development occurred, as it was John Howard’s wish for the space to be left “undeveloped” and in its “natural” state. The park soon became a popular destination for Torontonians to picnic, walk, snowshoe and toboggan.
During the 50’s and 60’s, many facilities were added: such as the scenic hillside gardens, a swimming pool for summer activities, the zoo for animal viewing, multiple playgrounds including the famous wooden castle, groomed turf areas for picnic sites and tennis courts, as well as concrete edging on the ponds. However, these amenities resulted in the loss of the park’s natural areas and original ecosystems.
In the 1970’s, there was a growing awareness of how special and significant High Park’s natural environment was, and so a large portion of the park was designated as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest by the City of Toronto. Restoration for the park to “return as it once was” and be preserved as a natural asset is still ongoing. However, as the surrounding west-end neighborhood continues to become more developed, trees have been cleared for playing fields and replaced with non-native species. In addition, more roads and turf grass have been added over forested parcels. (High Park Nature - Human History)
My Forest and Nature School Practitioner Course has encouraged me to dig further past colonial history, as the true land stewards have existed long before John and Jemima designated it “worth preserving.”
Archaeological evidence suggests that native peoples have inhabited what is now known as “High Park” in Toronto as early as 7,000 BC. The land has been traveled, paddled, and touched by Indigenous people since the glaciers receded 11,000 years ago. The keepers of the land created the trails that still remain today, and paddled in the nearby waters that would eventually become networks for European fur traders (Keefe, HighPark.org).
Toronto’s landscape, particularly the area of High Park, has always had a co-creative relationship with native peoples, as they have interacted intimately with the natural artifacts and shaped it for thousands of years (Native Canadian Centre).
High Park sits on the land that is the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. It is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit (Keefe, HighPark.org).
Treaty 13 is the Toronto Purchase Treaty, which was the sale of lands in the Toronto area from the Mississaugas of New Credit to the British crown. In 1787, it was a disputed agreement in exchange for various items. The Mississaugas believed the agreement was not a purchase extinguishing their rights to the land, but a rental of the lands for British use in exchange for gifts and presents in perpetuity (Donald, “Sacred Feathers” 1987). Not surprisingly, after the Toronto Purchase of 1787, Indigenous presence in the area declined with the creation of park lots, one of which was High Park lot 37 (Keefe, HighPark.org).
The Toronto Purchase Agreement has been in dispute for 200 years, until on June 8, 2010; parties involved reached a final agreement of a cash payout or settlement, for $145 million. This was made between the Government of Canada and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation for the land and others in the area. This money was distributed to the band government, with each 1,842 present-day, adult band member of the Mississaugas receiving $20,000 in cash. The rest was paid in trust for future generations (Peter, 2010, $145M Toronto Land Claim Settlement) & (Encyclopedia Canada).
High Park had an ancient history of being used by the Algonquin for fishing, hunting and growing corn (First Story Toronto), as well as for growing cultivated beans, corn and maize on its sandy uplands. In addition, High Park was and continues to be a site where controlled fires clear the Black Oak Savannah (Keefe, HighPark.org).
The Black Oak Savannah sits at the heart of High Park. It is the location of our forest school’s annual “Species Inventory,” that we participate in each summer. Our group loves to roam freely, identify plants and insects, and watch the red-tailed hawk feed upon squirrels and field mice in the grassland prairie meadow. The park miraculously carries some of the same occupants that it did 4,000 years ago of; white oak, cedar, cherry, staghorn sumac, dogwood, milkweed, jewelweed, nettles, blazing stars, columbine, lichens, bee balm and cornflower echinacea (Keefe, HighPark.org).
The Black Oak Savannah can be described as an ecosystem that has a sparse, discontinuous tree cover with tall grasslands that are exceptionally rare. Savannahs also provide nourishing foods, healing medicines, stocked hunting grounds, and were once a part of villages that grew corn and tobacco (Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle). Unfortunately, the black oak savanna ecosystem was one of the first ecosystems to be cleared by Europeans for settlement and agriculture.
The Black oak Savannah is estimated to be around 4,000 years old and takes up ⅓ of the park space. Once, this great Savannah traveled down south to the shores of Lake Ontario. Now, the Savannah is considered threatened and this particular savannah at High Park is one of the last remnants of its particular type in Ontario (First Story Toronto).
For 4,000 years, the Savannah has been carefully controlled through fire. Indigenous peoples used controlled burns to maintain the ecosystem, open the landscape and invite game like deer, caribou, elk, black bears and turkeys in (First Story Toronto). The practice of fire offers more growth for food, medicine and other gifts. Burns also help to control the proliferation of biting insects and increase the presence of game and fowl. Unfortunately, Europeans suppressed the fire practices of Indigenous peoples, which led to the Savannah’s decline, as forests will succeed naturally. Forest succession is the process where vegetation establishes and progresses over time (Native Canadian Centre).
The Black Oak Savannah is still an intact ecosystem due to its Indigenous occupants. In 2000, High Park implemented a prescribed burn program to revitalize the Savannah lands (Keefe, HighPark.org). Currently, the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle is working to re-indigenize High Park, especially the Black Oak savanna. The Circle wants to revitalize these sacred lands and create lasting monuments to Indigenous legacies. They acknowledge that these rare, widely spaced oak trees, prairie grasses and wildflowers depend on fire for regeneration (Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle).
This particular savannah lives within the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant made by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Anishnaabe Nations to peacefully share and care for Great Lakes resources, particularly for hunting and foraging grounds (Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle) & (Keefe, HighPark.org).
Toronto lies within the Dish with One Spoon Territory or One Dish One Spoon, which is a guiding principle for city building and urban planning without conflict. It is used to describe how land can be shared to the mutual benefit of all its inhabitants. According to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the concept is from hundreds of years ago and contributed to the creation of the Great League of Peace. It was incorporated over the years, notably in 1764, with the Royal Proclamation and Treaty of Niagara (Encyclopedia Canada).
This territory is referred to as a Bowl - representing what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe to the U.S. “We all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon.” This means we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the Dish, or land, is never empty. We must take care of it and the creatures we share it with. There are no knives at the table, only spoons, representing the individuals that live on the land. Furthermore, we must keep the peace (Future Skills).
The Toronto Carrying Place Trail is a well-known First Nations trade route that linked native settlements along Lake Ontario with Georgian Bay, or the Upper and Lower Great Lakes. Alongside the nearby Humber River, just west of High Park, was an Iroquois village named Teiaiagon that flourished on the edge of the Humber River Valley (Keefe, HighPark.org). It has been shown that sections of High Park’s savannah lands were located at the southern terminus for this major portage route. In addition, some of High Park's trails were once ancient paths, with street names showing their history; “Indian Grove” and “Wendigo Way.” Wendigo Pond is named after a cannibal creature told in First Nations folklore that cannibalizes other people after a harsh winter (First Story Toronto). West of Colborne Lodge was a passage called “Indian Trails,” which is found on the east side of Grenadier Pond, where one can walk along a ravine ridge path to navigate the low, wet marsh, as First Nations once did (Keefe, HighPark.org).
High Park also contains Indigenous Mounds estimated at 57, one is an illegal BMX bike course at Snake Mound, that is being lobbied to stop (Native Canadian Centre).
In all, this land acknowledgement research has taught me so much about High Park’s unique Indigenous and Colonial history and how it has been sculpted for various uses, resources and purposes. It remains a tug-of-war between “preservation” and “recreation.”