Into The Ward
Lia Tarachansky
Black and white archival photo of the historic ward neighbourhood in Toronto. A young white woman in a long coat stands with debris in the yard of an impoverished urban house, with buildings in the background.
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As we start off on this multimedia tour of what was once St. John’s Ward and is now Nathan Phillips Square, we acknowledge the colonial conditions of our collective presence on this land. The Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples have made this place home, as did the Heron-Wendat. European colonization made possible a migration of peoples from all over the world, like the creators of this project whose roots are from Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. While we make this place our home too, we can never forget what it means to colonize. It means to take by force, to take over and to displace, for the benefit of one group at the expense of another.
This is Treaty 13 territory, also known as the Toronto Purchase. Signed in 1787 by representatives of The Crown and a Band of Anishinaabeg known as the Mississaugas of the New Credit. The treaty was under dispute for more than 200 years, partly because the boundaries and the size of the territory were unclear and because the Mississaugas understood that they were renting the land out through the agreement, not extinguishing their rights to it. They exchanged access to their territory for such items as gun flints, brass kettles, mirrors, laced hats, a bale of flowered flannel, and rum. The purchase was revised in 1805, shortly before formerly enslaved peoples, Irish, Italian, and Jewish refugees made The Ward their destination, and a land claims dispute followed, which was only settled in 2010. As we discover more about the history of this place, through the empaced videos, images, soundwalk recordings, and Augmented Reality virtual objects, we recommit ourselves to decolonization by all means and to building a shared future, rooted in equity. -
In 2015 an archeological dig led by Infrastructure Ontario unearthed tens of thousands of objects that attest to the histories of Toronto's first multicultural immigrant neighbourhood. Before St. John's Ward was demolished in the mid-20th century, it was home to the city's first Chinatown and the endpoint of the Underground Railway.
By 3D scanning some of these unearthed projects and intervening with them through virtual and cinematic artistic creation, we “return” these objects looking at thousands of years of unearthed histories. Into The Ward then combines these interventions into an emplaced Augmented Reality and short-film exhibition at the site of the former St. John’s Ward, today known as Nathan Phillips Square.
This project was assembled by York University PhD Student Lia Tarachansky under the supervision of professor Mary Bunch. It includes, however, the work of many researchers, archeologists, artists, and historians. It is funded by a 2020 MITACS grant.
To find out more, see the project website https://yorkliatarachansky.wixsite.com/intotheward
See the project website at https://yorkliatarachansky.wixsite.com/intotheward
Image Gallery
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In 2015 Infrastructure Ontario commissioned the archeological firm Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants to lead its Armoury Street dig at the site of the new Courthouse at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. The dig unearthed tens of thousands of artifacts and remnants of objects from the neighbourhood that once stood at the center of Canada's most populous city. Fish bones and coconut and oyster shells were some of the recognizable food remains that shed light on residents’ eating habits. Ceramic dishes, milk and seltzer bottles, children’s toys and shoes were some of the household items that reveal telling details about everyday life in the area. Holly Martelle led that dig as its chief archeologist. See some of her favourite objects in our Gallery.
Below are a few of the objects included in the Into The Ward Augmented Reality exhibit. Details about these objects were kindly provided by the TMHC archeologists, and by their book 2018 The Ward Uncovered: The Archaeology of Everyday Life (Coach House Books).
Video Gallery
Lia Tarachansky, Mary Bunch, Holly Martelle, Nicole E Brandon and Abbey Flower.
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This research project is supported by MITACS and led by a team of media researchers at York University. It includes a series of short videos and Augmented Reality scans of objects unearthed at the site of the Infrastructure Ontario archeological dig led by Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants.
