MyOntario – A vision over time

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The cultural history of what is now Ontario stretches back more than 10,000 years. Many Nations and many peoples have called this place home. MyOntario – A vision over time marks this long history by opening a conversation among Ontarians about our experiences, identities, values and aspirations.

We are asking people from across the province to share their stories – the places, memories, photos, artifacts, artworks and traditions that inspire you, that motivate you and help define who you are. Be the province's storytellers, record keepers, historians and visionaries!

Let's build a deeper understanding, showcase our diversity and create a lasting record that reflects the breadth, depth and complexity of our great province as we look to the future.

Dr. Patrick Julig (Professor of Anthropology, School of Community and Northern Studies, Laurentian University, Sudbury)

Reflections on ancient quarry sites of northern Ontario

In the 1980s-90s, I excavated at Cummins and Sheguiandah National Historic Site quarry/workshops in northern Ontario – in addition to many neat places elsewhere around the world.

We archaeologists are inspired in our quests, seeking rare an

Jean-Luc Pilon (Curator of Central Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of History)

The gift of time travel

In the summer of 1982, I was carrying out archaeological research near the shores of Hudson Bay on the Severn River. One of the sites we were investigating had been used a number of times. The earliest evidence suggested that people camped at the Ouabouche site before Europ

Andy Thomson

I spent my summers in an area in Northern Ontario that was a microcosm of the development of the Ontario wilderness. My connection to the area and the lake where my family had a camp was once a logging operation belonging to my grandfather, W. B. Plaunt of Sudbury. However, it wasn't until I retired

Nathan Tidridge

Railway bridge in #Waterdown. #MyOntario

Township of Oro-Medonte

The Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oro-Medonte, Ontario is a National Historical Site and a monumental depiction of freedom and equality in North America. It stands in honour of the Black militiamen that served to defend Upper Canada during the War of 1812.
Research suggests that the chur

Kendrick Doll

I’m so grateful to have experienced adventures across many of Ontario’s landscapes. Here are a few that stuck with me.

My Ontario is:

Feeling the splash of the waves on my face while kayaking the 1000 islands on the St-Lawrence RiverHearing the loons call as night settles in while sitting around

J.M. Rowe, Esquesing Historical Society

The Great War 1914-1918

The home front – Georgetown

This quilt was created through the efforts of the Georgetown Women’s Institute in 1915. The citizens were asked to pay 10 cents per name to have it embroidered onto a square for the quilt. It was completed in time for the 1915 Esquesing (George

R. Dennis Moore (Archivist, Multicultural History Society of Ontario)

This badge belonged to Bohdan Panchuk, one of the most influential Canadians involved in the effort to resettle thousands of Ukrainians who were displaced by the Second World War.

By the end of the conflict, countless refugees had been forcibly displaced from their homes and faced uncertain future

Safaa Zbib

My life is full of stories, and My Ontario is their latest...My heart travelled to Canada way before I physically did; back in the eighties, my brother immigrated to Montreal. I loved every photo he used to send. I fell in love with the greenery, I sensed peace and serenity. Life took me away from m

Scarlett Janusas (President, Scarlett Janusas Archaeology Inc. )

Underwater archaeology

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain, American author

I’ve always had a passion ab

David Leonard

As a little boy obsessed with some of the great engineering feats of the past, I still remember my first subway ride under Toronto's Bloor Street Viaduct. How remarkable it was to pop out from the deep darkness of a subway tunnel - and suddenly, light! For those too brief 15 seconds or so, the Don V

Carol Page

My Ontario is represented by Lake Ontario. It is awe-inspiring to view the Lake in all seasons. I wanted to capture the essence of the lake water by recreating its colours. My installation is called "Watermarks". I used textiles, paint samples, papers, silver threads, plexiglas and tape to portray t

Nadine Williams

The Immigrant Child

Nadine Williams is an award-winning poet and author.

Alphonse Tourville

Raised and bred, Ontario, Cree Nation Attawapiskat, Survivor Residential School, travelled Canada, live in N.L. new home for 30 years, but nothing stops the yearning for many visits.

Andrew Riddle (Partner at ASI)

For millennia, the Grand River served as a highway for the First Nations people of Southern Ontario, connecting broad expanses of the Golden Horseshoe inland to Lake Erie. The banks of the Grand River have sometimes been characterized as one long archaeological site, and that proved to be true for a

Barnum House

Barnum House

- Doors Open Northumberland - June 3-4, 2017

Miptoon (Anthony Chegahno)

Anthony Chegahno, whose Anishinaabe name is Miptoon, is an elder, a resident of Neyaashiiningmiing and a former band councillor for the Chippewas of Nawash unceded First Nation.

Aleksander Sielicki

PAINTINGS ON CANVASTONE
We are sailing on the ferry to Pelee Island. The mist from the water sets on my face. I look to the horizon, which soon disappears. I look deeper and deeper. The mysterious beauty of eternity. The afterimage of the sun when I closed my eyes. The sun is still in a shapeless cl

Georges Quirion (architect and former Ontario Heritage Trust Board member)

Ontario’s rich industrial history

Northern Ontario has unique structures, not familiar to many, spread out through small northern communities, reflecting its rich history and its vast wealth of precious resources sought after by many from around the world.

The mining industry in particular creat

Ministry of Francophone Affairs

MyOntario workshop

Niagara Historical Society & Museum

Niagara-on-the-Lake became one of the several places that received poor children from the streets and workhouses of Britain. In 1868, Maria Rye purchased the former Niagara Courthouse and Gaol located just outside Old Town. She converted the building into an orphanage known as “Our Western Home” (OW

Colton Konecny

Friends.

- Colton Konecny, Emancipation Day celebration at Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Dresden, August 5, 2017

D'Arcy Ryan

A little part of my story is the Post Office where people meet and greet and be nice in the few minutes that we cross. I often got it for my mother or my father, but we all ran into each other. Usually, it was at lunch or just before dinner. It was a quick greeting. Now it is the same in New Liskear

Janet Walters

To be without access to a post office in the 19th century would be akin to being deprived of internet or cell-phone access today. Communities revolved around them. Before Toronto was incorporated as a city in 1834 the Town of York had a succession of post offices. York’s Fourth and Toronto’s First s

Kristen McLaughlin

I am not from Ontario. I moved here recently, in September of 2016. My home is in the west, having grown up in Alberta and gone to school in Vancouver, BC. This country has its pretty divisive lines between the two halves of east vs. west. I moved to Toronto expecting, somehow, an entirely different

Nathan Tidridge

The Covenant Chain Wampum exchanged at the Treaty of Niagara (1764). #MyOntario

Mélanie-Rose Frappier (2014 Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement)

On the path to reconciliation

Education is key. It will lead to healing as well as social awareness about the Indigenous culture. My ancestors spent hundreds of years fighting for the right to practise their way of life and it is still a struggle for some people today.


The picture shown here r

#MyOntario

What's your spooky Halloween tradition?

From costumes to haunted houses to trick-or-treating, share the traditions that send a shiver down your spine!

Join the conversation on social media: Explore #MyOntario posts about Halloween and connect with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Alisha Mohamed-Marchant

As a child, I imagined myself as an archaeologist exploring tombs and temples. As an adult, I find myself as an archaeologist exploring libraries and archives. Sure, it may not be the glamorous archaeology seen on television but for me it's a continuous narrative slowly revealing how the landscape a

William R. Fitzgerald (archaeologist)

A divine intersection of history and archaeology

Suspicion, fear, and intimidation met Jesuit priests Jean de Brébeuf and Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot during their Mission of the Angels to “la Nation Neutre” between November 2, 1640 and March 19, 1641. This tribal confederacy – so named by Champl