Join Us
Walk your way to better wellness. Meet new people, discover nearby green spaces and find your connection to the outdoors and a healthier you this semester. Mindfulness-based outdoor exercises and activities to help students awaken their senses, connect to nature, meet others, and de-stress.
Walk will take place rain or shine, come dressed for the weather! This walk is free, but registration is required. TTC subsidies available upon request. Meeting details will be shared upon registration, closer to the date of the walk.
Walk Schedule
First Story Walk of Indigenous History on St. George Campus
Join First Story Toronto guides on a walking tour of Indigenous histories and geographies of University of Toronto St. George campus. The tour will feature stories of precolonial landscapes, Indigenous Knowledges, colonialism, and anti-colonialism at St. George campus.
Walk will take place rain or shine, come dressed for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes. The walk will mostly follow accessible paths, with perhaps one or two stairways.
This walk is free, but registration is required. TTC subsidies available upon request. Meeting details will be shared upon registration, closer to the date of the walk.
Facilitator
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Dr. Jon Johnson
Dr. Jon Johnson is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) at Woodsworth College, University of Toronto. His research focuses on urban land-based Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto and its representation through oral and digital forms of storytelling. He is also interested in the ways increased awareness of Indigenous presence in Toronto has informed Indigenous placemaking initiatives across the city. He works actively within Toronto’s Indigenous community in his capacity as a lead organizer for First Story Toronto, an Indigenous-led community-based organization that researches and shares Toronto’s Indigenous presence through storytelling walks and digital initiative such as websites, smartphone applications, and virtual tours.
Fall Colours & Salmon Migration in Erindale Park
Explore the beautiful Erindale Park, a short walk from the UTM campus. On this guided walk, we'll soak in the blazing fall colours of Erindale's forest canopy, observing many aspects of the changing season. Fall is also the time of the annual salmon migration. We'll walk along the Credit River in the park, and learn more about the incredible salmon as they take their last leg of the journey from Lake Ontario all the way up the Credit River to spawn the next generation.
This walk will be guided by nature guides from The Riverwood Conservancy.
Walk will take place rain or shine, come dressed for the weather! This walk is free, but registration is required. Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to the UTM campus. TTC subsidies available upon request. Meeting details will be shared upon registration, closer to the date of the walk.
The Riverwood Conservancy (TRC) is a volunteer- and member-based charity that protects, restores, and invites people to connect with nature at Riverwood – an oasis of woodlands, meadows, and ravines that spans 150 acres along the Credit River in Mississauga. Thanks to abundant wildlife that includes deer, mink, beavers, possums, and over 185 species of birds, Riverwood is recognized as one of the most diverse ecosystems in the Credit River watershed; a remarkable fact given its location in the heart of Mississauga.
Founded in 1985 as the Mississauga Garden Council, today TRC works to connect people of all ages, abilities, and cultures to the wonders of nature through programming that includes environmental education, conservation, gardening, and nature-based programming for people with special needs.
https://theriverwoodconservancy.org/
@yourriverwood
Chinatown Historic Walk
This is your chance to explore Toronto's downtown Chinatown through the layers of stories that span generations and continents, bringing together past, present, and future in a dynamic synergy specific only to Chinatown. Led by Long Time No See Collective member Kwoi Gin, this walking tour will honour the ancestors by sharing and teaching stories of how Chinatown came to be, the histories that have been erased, and, our responsibilities to act in solidarity with Indigenous peoples.
The walk will take place rain or shine, come dressed for the weather! This walk is free, but registration is required. TTC subsidies available upon request. Meeting details will be shared upon registration, closer to the date of the walk.
Facilitator
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Kwoi Gin
Kwoi Gin is a Hoisandoy hoo became Jean Lumb's Dimsum Buoy after landin in Ctwn'66 n rest is history
Kwoi Gin 是一位台山仔。他66‘ 年登陆在唐人街 后成为 Jean Lumb (林黃彩珍) 的 Dimsum Buoy （点心仔） 以后都成为历史
Co-presented by Hart House, The Art Museum and First Nations House as part of Indigenous Education Week, this walk takes participants to several contemporary artworks by Indigenous artists on the St. George Campus. Each stop is an opportunity to reflect and learn about these artworks through conversation led by artists, Indigenous leaders, and curators, remapping the campus through Indigenous points of reference. Stops will include Hart House, the Art Museum at University College, and the Myhal Centre. We will end the walk at First Nations House with a free catered lunch and talk by artist Mike Ormsby who will speak about his own work and the artworks in the First Nations House Collection.
Speakers include Rowan-Red Sky, Mike Ormsby, Liz Ikiriko, and Barbara Fischer
Featured artworks by: Rebecca Belmore & Osvaldo Yero, Shelly Niro, Solomon & Trinh King, Alanis Obomsawin, Mike Ormsby and more.
Nov 3, 10 am to noon, followed by a free lunch catered by Charger Foods at First Nations House
All are welcome!
Facilitator
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Barbara Fischer
Executive Director/Chief Curator
Barbara Fischer is the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (comprised of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre) as well as an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream in the Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.
Fischer has curated award-winning exhibitions in the area of contemporary art and its histories, including solo exhibitions of Stan Douglas, Rebecca Belmore, Will Kwan, John Greyson, Wendy Coburn, Deanna Bowen, and Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience—which toured across Canada from 2017–2021—among many others. She curated the internationally circulating retrospective exhibition General Idea Editions 1967–1995 (Kunstverein Munich, Kunsthalle Zurich, Kunst-Werke ICA Berlin, CAAC Seville, Henry Art Gallery Seattle, and the Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburgh, among others); and Projections (2007), the first major survey and touring exhibition on projection-based works in the history of contemporary art in Canada. In 2010, she partnered with five curators from across Canada to produce Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, the first survey of conceptual art in Canada. The exhibition toured across Canada and in reconfigured form to the Badischer Kunstverein (Germany) and to the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris (2010–2014).
Barbara Fischer is the recipient of the 2008 Hnatyshyn Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art. She curated Mark Lewis’ project and was part of the curatorial team for Isuma, presented at the Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (in 2009 and 2019 respectively).
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Mike Ormsby a.k.a. W’ DAE B' WAE
Artist
Mike Ormsby is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist, his late mother's family is from Curve Lake First Nation. He signs his work as W’ DAE B' WAE, his Anishinaabe name meaning "he or she is telling the truth, is right, is correct, is accurate." Mike hopes his art speaks to that truth, telling the stories of the Anishinaabe, sharing the culture and traditions. But the truth in his art may also be different for others. What Mike sees in his art may differ from what others see; his art may speak to them differently. Art is healing, a window into the soul; a way to better understand ourselves and each other. To know where one is going, one must know when one has come from.
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Nyssa Sky
Nyssa Sky (member of Oneida Nation of the Thames) graduated from the Publications program at OCAD University in 2015, and is currently working toward her PhD in Art History at the University of Toronto. She works as an artist making illustrations that draw from her personal experiences and the oral tradition of her Indigenous culture. Maps, the animacy of the land, and the performance of stories inspire her work. Her writing and illustration work have been published by CBC Arts, Shameless Magazine, Maisonneuve, smART Magazine, This Magazine, and Broadview.
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Liz Ikiriko
Liz Ikiriko Curator, Collections and Art in Public Spaces at The Art Museum. Ikiriko has over 15 years of experience working with national institutions and museums. She has curated major exhibitions, most recently as a member of the curatorial committee of Bamako Encounters African Biennial of Photography in Mali, West Africa. She has published curatorial and critical writings internationally; held appointments on several gallery, conference, and publication Advisory Boards; and has received funding from municipal, provincial, and national arts funding bodies.
