"1600s
My street remembers
the hard-heeled boots
of the Europeans
who arrived later,
how they dreamed of routes
to faraway lands,
traded and traveled,
and brought wagon-loads
of settlers in their wake."
The Better Paths series from Groundwood Books is meant to 'explore our relationship and reconciliation with the natural world'. This new addition looks at one city street in Toronto, and provides its history that begins over 14,000 years ago when mammoths and mastodons wandered its ice-covered land. Moving forward the author shows the changes it endures through thousands of years.
Each change offers comment on the way this same street has progressed; from the caribou and bison that encouraged hunting by the First Peoples, who then settled the land, building homes and communities. Acrylic illustrations show clearly (without text) the advances made by these Indigenous peoples in terms of the use of the land and nature's benefits. The images invite careful consideration of development over time.
"It remembers how their descendants
stepped in harmony with this land
for thousands of years."
The arrival of Europeans with their dreams of growing territories and shared use of the land brought big change. Their unfulfilled promises led to conflict and suffering and the growth of settlements on lands that once were home to First Nations. In 1851, the street is named Danforth Avenue and it becomes home for more and more people. Apologies for past transgressions are offered, while people who now live there have no knowledge of those who came before them. The street remembers.
A final question to readers is presnted for consideration: What does your street remember?
A timeline offers a brief history of the street. Both illustrator and author provide notes cocerning their work, and a list of sources and ideas for learning more is provided.
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