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.
Muhammad Qureshi (2014 recipient of a Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement)
Our natural fingerprint
The magic began on a cold autumn afternoon after a hockey game with friends. I was walking home through a trail and the leaves had turned bright yellow and deep red, and I came across a painted turtle scurrying to find its way back to a pond. A whole hour vanished as I expl
Shruthi Dhananjaya
Being raised in Toronto, I have fond memories of the city’s harbourfront. Throughout the years, I would visit the harbourfront each summer with my family and it is a tradition which I still continue. I find it to be a calming oasis right in the heart of the city centre. I enjoy walking on the boardw
Jim Szilva (author and son of Ted Szilva, creator of the Big Nickel)
A nickel and a prayer
In 1963, a firefighter named Ted Szilva entered a contest organized by the Canadian Centennial Committee in Sudbury. The committee asked residents of the city to come up with a unique way to celebrate and recognize Canada’s 100th birthday in Sudbury. Sudbury was a mining town
Diane
“I am proud to be Canadian. The small villages and towns are very friendly but I also loved Toronto. I loved the streetcar and the subway – it is easy to get anywhere.”
Diane was born in Orangeville, Ontario and lived there for much of her life.
She had a twin sister and is one of six children.
Christopher Wai
Archaeology has been an important part of my life since I was 16 when I participated in the TRCA's Boyd field school for high school students, though it has been around longer since my 5fth grade teacher first introduced it to me. I have had the privilege to have interned at the Ontario Heritage Tru
Jeremy Collins
A santuary for all seasons
When I think of My Ontario, my thoughts sometimes turn to those cold Canadian winter days in late January and early February when snow and ice prevail and the hope of spring is just a distant dream and yet I know that a sanctuary for the senses is not too far away. This
#MyOntario
What's your favourite fall fair memory?
Was it going for a spin on the merry-go-round? Bringing home a ribbon? Enjoying harvest-time treats? Share your favourite fall fair moments with us!
Join the conversation on social media: Explore #MyOntario posts about fall fairs in Ontario and connect wit
Alicia Hawkins
In 2006 Laurentian University and University of Toronto students were excavating at the Thomson-Walker site in Simcoe County. This is a large Huron-Wendat village located on an Ontario Heritage Trust property. I clearly remember the day that one of the students came rushing over to me holding this a
MyOntario is ...
We are bringing MyOntario – A vision over time to communities across the province to find out what Ontario means to you!
In 2017, our MyOntario roadshow and interactive kiosks are coming to community events, museums and more. It’s a unique chance to join a provincewide conversation about our expe
Desiree Laporte
Acceptance of EVERYONE.
- Desiree Laporte, Canuck It Up Festival Amherstburg, downtown Amherstburg, August 6, 2017
Sean Fraser
The Ravine
Straining against the colonial engineer’s grid, carved relentlessly through table land by an ancient creek, its buried waters find their way to the Don and on to the lake. On its banks are a kaleidoscope of wild flowers, blossoms, leaves and litter that turn with the seasons. The V-shap
MyOntario is ...
We are bringing MyOntario – A vision over time to communities across the province to find out what Ontario means to you!
In 2017, our MyOntario roadshow and interactive kiosks are coming to community events, museums and more. It’s a unique chance to join a provincewide conversation about our expe
Paul Yee (historan and author)
Telling the stories of Chinese Canadians
I am inspired by something intangible: the past, especially the history of Chinese Canadians. I grew up in Vancouver, knowing little about it. But once I found traces of it, I never stopped telling its stories.
Yes, there are museum artifacts and archival
Holly Martelle (principal at Timmins Martelle Heritage Consultants Inc.)
Hopes for the future
My life as an archaeologist often consists of hour upon hour of painstaking analysis of small bits and pieces of everyday life. But last year, during an archaeological investigation in Toronto’s downtown, we made a remarkable discovery that not only got my archaeological heart
Janet Haughton
Naturally beautiful!
- Janet Haughton, Canuck It Up Festival Amherstburg, downtown Amherstburg, August 6, 2017
Chief Francis Pegahmagabow, 1889-1952
Francis Pegahmagabow, an Ojibwe of the Caribou clan, was born in Shawanaga First Nation. He volunteered at the onset of the First World War and served overseas as a scout and sniper with the Canadian Expeditionary Force's 1st Battalion. He was one of 39 Canadian soldiers awarded the Military Medal a
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
#MyOntario
Join the #MyOntario conversation!
From throwbacks to museum selfies to Instagram-worthy sights – share your stories and photos of the province by using the hashtag #MyOntario on social media.
Need inspiration? Explore posts tagged #MyOntario on Twitter and Instagram!
Dawson Bridger
The photo of my great great grandfather, Frederick Allen Weir, on the cover of the 1913 Rod and Gun magazine connects me to a family member I never met. This image was captured near Rondeau Provincial Park, where my family lived at the time. Frederick Weir, his son, and my grandfather, hunted the Ca
Adrienne Shadd (historian, curator and author)
Reflections on my hometown
In the year of the 150th birthday of Canada, I would like to pay tribute to my hometown. North Buxton started out in 1849 as a colony established by escaped slaves and free Blacks from the United States. One of the final stops on the Underground Railroad, Buxton occupies
Nathan Tidridge
Her Majesty's beautiful @MohawkChapel - the oldest Protestant church in #MyOntario. #ChapelRoyal
John Steckley
My Brodie History
In 1835 a nine year old Scottish lad named Alexander Brodie came to southern Ontario by ships and boats from Peterhead in northeastern Scotland. He and his family spent their first year on Lot Street (now Queen Street) in Toronto then called York. He described seeing cows being
Julie Dorsey
Diverse.
- Julie Dorsey, Emancipation Day celebration at Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Dresden, August 5, 2017
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
The Armenian Boys' Farm Home
On July 1, 1923, a group of 50 Armenian boys arrived at this farm site from an orphanage in Corfu, Greece. The 'Georgetown Boys,' as they came to be known, arrived in Canada between 1923 and 1927 - 109 boys in all. The orphans were survivors of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923). Their plight touched
W. Kelly
This table and chair belonged to my grandmother. She got it from her father who brought her and her two brothers to Canada just after the First World War. Her mother had died in childbirth. She showed me her father’s war medals when I was a boy. He’d fought in different wars in different parts of th
Susan Bryan (volunteer Chair of the Nature Reserves Committee of the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists)
Someone has passed this way before
I’m standing on the deck of a small boat, riding the swells of the Nipigon River where it widens into Lake Superior. In front of me, a rock cliff rises straight out of the water. On this cliff are a series of pictographs – lines, circles and other symbols – as we
