The Village Hearth Initiative is based out of Guelph, Ontario. Looking into the stories of this place we call Guelph, we recognize that there are many turbulant stories of this land. Lots of different accounts and histories where different people lived here, hunted here, grew food here. These histories have been mostly erased by colonial whitewashing, but some of these stories still trickle though. Though the story of this land is still being remembered, the more recent histories describe the land we know as Guelph as built on the traditional territories of the Chonnoton/Attawandaron peoples and included in the Dish with One Spoon covenant. Later, through the “Between the lakes treaty” (Treaty 3) from 1792, this territory is now considered the treaty territories of the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

Some of these dates are formulated through the colonial context, using a colonial research techniques and practices, and as such we are working with a memory skewed by colonial empire building and statecraft which muddles of the stories of the land.

With this evening’sconversation, and many subsequent conversations, we hope learn the stories of this land – what stories this place, human and nonhumans alike, has to share. The land beneath our feet has been shaped and molded by humans, both by indigenous peoples who have been stewarding it for millennia, and by settlers who have largely occupied and exploited it. In these ways, the land holds stories of colonization, displacement and resource extraction, as well as stories of resistance, resilience and healing.