[URBAN NOTE] "Reclaiming Spaces/Places: Restoring Indigenous street names in Toronto"

[rfmcdonald]

At Spacing Toronto, Lacey McRae Williams writes about an interesting, politically-inspired effort to restore First Nations placenames across Toronto. I'll have to look for some of these signs.

The Ogimaa Mikana (Leader’s Trail) project began at the height of the Idle No More movement as a means of reclaiming and renaming streets and places in Toronto. As Hayden explains it, the idea has been to create visible and provocative interruptions in the urban landscape.

The two ways Hayden [King, the Director of the Centre for Indigenous Governance & Assistant Professor of Politics at Ryerson] and his team reinsert Anishinaabe language and culture into Toronto are done by 1) taking the literal translation of the place name and using the Anishinaabemowin name, and 2) reinterpreting a place name to disrupt the normative physical cityscape.

At Spadina, for example, the original Anishinabemowin name replaced the Anglicized street name (see picture above). Ishpadinaa literally translates to “little hill” or “place on a hill” which makes a lot of sense when standing at College looking north up ‘Spadina Avenue’ or even south to the water.

On Queen Street the team chose to replace ‘Queen’ with what they ended up titling their project, Ogimaa Mikana, meaning ‘Leader’s Trail’. The reason for placing the ‘Leader’s Trail’ on Queen Street may not need explaining for some; It did for me however, because like many residents, I took this street name at face value and had associated it with the space it occupies now, ‘The Fashion District’. This name became a part of my everyday, blended in, and I didn’t take the time until recently to question its origins.

It makes perfect sense then to dethrone the cross-Atlantic monarchy, temporarily at least, and replace the space with a tactile homage to local indigenous leaders making real change on our lands. This piece was installed the day Chief Theresa Spence ended her fast to honour her and all the women leaders at the forefront of the Idle No More movement. It was an act of solidarity.