Andrew Martell

The Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, also known as the Humber Portage and the Toronto Passage, was a major portage route in Ontario, Canada that linked Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe and the northern Great Lakes. The name comes from the Mohawk term toron-ten, meaning “the place where the trees grow over the water”, an important landmark on Lake Simcoe through which the trail passed. Much of the original art by Chief Lady Bird found throughout this site was created to visualize this history, adapted by Sara Roque and Selena Mills in a written, oral, and multi-media piece about Land Acknowledgements in Toronto. This relationship with place in Toronto is another foundational one for the Centre. It is a reminder of the collective wisdom, ways of knowing and ways of being of our ancestors and sacred ones.