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.

Luigi

From Valdagno, Italy

“You can build a life in Canada. I worked hard and built a successful grocery store business, specializing in items for Italian shoppers. I have never been out of work here.”

Luigi grew up in Mussolini led Italy. He was required to leave his family at an early age and work o

Barnum House

Barnum House

- Doors Open Northumberland - June 3-4, 2017

Jeanette Elliott, Collections Co-ordinator, Fanshawe Pioneer Village

This Farm Service Corps uniform is part of the permanent collection at Fanshawe Pioneer Village, and serves to remind us that men were not the only participants in World War One. While women were restricted from participating in direct combatant roles, they organized and outfitted themselves for hom

Beth

“It was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations, Reveal themselves, one star at time.” I heard these song lyrics recently and was transported back to a summer vacation with my father and my siblings when I was a young child. Bobcaygeon‎ was my first experience of cottage life. My childhood self reme

Nathan Tidridge

Tobacco growing for the #ChapelRoyal at Massey College, #Toronto. #MyOntario

Niagara Historical Society & Museum

Niagara-on-the-Lake is one of the few towns in Ontario that has had black residents since the beginning of the province. However, it was in the years following the War of 1812 that Niagara saw an increase in black immigrants and runaway slaves. When the United States Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was p

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

David P. Silcox (author, educator, cultural administrator and arts advocate)

MY ONTARIO IS:

RosalieAbella, RobertAitken, AndréAlexis, LouApplebaum, MargaretAtwood, IainBaxter&, StanBevington, BillBissett, JeanBoggs, DaveBroadfoot, EdBurtynsky, JackBush, JackCostello, DavidCrombie, KikiDelaney, LouiseDennys, MichaeldePencier, RamsayDerry, RupertDuchesne, BuddFeheley, Ma

Pauline Moss

Fresh fruit, small towns, variety, farm fields, sunsets, lakes, camping, family

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

Laura Wickett

Industrial heritage in Jordan Harbour

To find your way to one of Niagara’s hidden gems, you first need to know which dead-end street in Jordan Station to park on, and then take an overgrown pathway through the bushes to a steel train trestle bridge. Follow it out over the mouth of Jordan Harbour,

Chloe Cooley and the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada

On March 14, 1793 Chloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman in Queenston, was bound, thrown in a boat and sold across the river to a new owner in the United States. Her screams and violent resistance were brought to the attention of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe by Peter Martin, a free Black an

Sexual Diversity Activism at the University of Toronto

Having first met off campus, the University of Toronto Homophile Association (UTHA) convened again on November 4, 1969, at University College to advocate equality and freedom for gay men and lesbians. This was the first group of its kind at a Canadian university. Early on, UTHA attracted supporters

Nathan Tidridge

#Waterdown's #Souharissen Canoe Garden - planted with medicine gifted by Elder Carolyn King of @MNCFN. #MyOntario

Charlie Fairbank (great-grandson of Oil Springs pioneer John Henry Fairbank)

An enduring landscape

Each morning, I open the door of our farmhouse and step into an enduring landscape of beauty, shaped by horse and man. Sheep dot the fields, deer often bound away and birds flap overhead. The swinging wooden jerker line sings a symphonic rhythm as it delivers power to the pum

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

Kathy Stinson (author of books for young people)

When I first started going to the cottage that has been in my husband’s family for more than 100 years, I loved the sense of continuity I felt there, as five generations enjoyed the traditions that Grandfather Gordon established in the early 1900s. And the place. The gorgeous combinations of water,

Pamela

The St. Lawrence River has always been an integral part of the Brockville community. For the Fulford Family, who lived in town from the mid-nineteenth century onward and saw their fortunes skyrocket after 1890 because of investment in the "Pink Pills for Pale People", having the means the entertain

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

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

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

Ellen Scheinberg (author and President, Heritage Professionals/Archives)

Celebrating the history of Toronto’s Jewish cemeteries

Over the past decade, I have developed a passion for cemeteries. It started during my tenure as Director of the Ontario Jewish Archives, when I devised a tour of the Pape Avenue Cemetery with local artist Susan Brown.

Pape Cemetery was estab

Chibuikem Muomah

I travelled light years ahead(a visionary)
sometimes what I speak you might not understand, I lived many lives.
on my journey I met a fellow visionary who helped (Guided) me, I do not know him in person but we connected and spoken a language I call Gibberish(just like babel) and we both understood

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

Trini Mitra

One of the happiest moments of my life ... when Mum was visiting me in 2015 and was thrilled when I took her to the Niagara Falls in the middle of November. It was quite an experience for someone who is not used to our frigid temperatures to be experiencing the Falls in the middle of Winter. She was

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

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

Nathan Tidridge

Local residents in #Waterdown holding their spots for the annual #Flamborough Santa Claus Parade later that day. #MyOntario

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

From an interview with Josephine Mandamin (“Water Walker,” grandmother and a 2015 recipient of a Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation)

Walking with the water

When we walk with the water, we pray for the water. The water that we carry, we pray for it, and we pray to it; we speak to it. Our minds and our hearts are with the water that we carry. The water is very precious. We have adopted it. We picked it up from where we walk from,

Melanie Pledger (2015 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement)

Learning from the past

I’m proud to be a Canadian. I’m also proud to be an Ontarian. Going one step further, I’m proud to be a Falcon.

In 2014, I graduated from one of the oldest high schools in Canada – the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute (OSCVI). It was founded in 1856, making i