Book Club: Beyond the Acknowledgment — A Treaty Guide for Torontonians
Most land acknowledgments are performative: a few words read off a slide, never actually reckoned with. This session is about closing that gap — understanding the treaty history instead of just reciting it.
This is experiential learning, not a lecture. We’ll walk through a few of the book’s hands-on exercises together, and point you to ones you can take further on your own.
We’re working from A Treaty Guide for Torontonians, created by the Talking Treaties Collective (Ange Loft, Victoria Freeman, Martha Stiegman, and Jill Carter) as part of Jumblies Theatre + Arts’ Talking Treaties project. The book treats Tkaronto’s treaty history as something to work through with your hands, not just read — sketching, writing, mapping, walking — built from years of community research into the relationships between Indigenous nations and the land we now call Toronto.
You do NOT need to read the book beforehand. I’ve already done that part.
What to expect:
A grounded look at what a treaty actually is, and why “since time immemorial” describes an ongoing relationship, not a phrase to get through
A few of the book’s hands-on exercises, highlighted for the group and yours to take further on your own time
A slideshow from a recent field trip along the Humber River and through the gardens near Ontario Place
Space to bring your own land acknowledgment and take it apart, with your hands, not just your head
Come curious.