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.
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
Ontario Science Centre
Ontario Science Centre weaving its way into history
The Ontario Science Centre is the proud owner of a 19th-Century Jacquard Loom, which uses perforated cards laced together to control the movements of the machine. The presence or absence of the holes on those punch cards essentially tells the loo
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.
Amanda Rhodenizer
Amanda Rhodenizer is an artist and former Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence program resident.
The Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence program at Fool’s Paradise is coordinated by the Ontario Heritage Trust and is supported by the RBC Foundation.
The artist gratefully acknowledges the financial s
#MyOntario
Where will you adventure this summer?
From cozy campfires to scenic views, there’s lots to explore in Ontario’s great outdoors. Share your adventures with us!
Join the conversation on social media: Explore #MyOntario posts about camping, and connect with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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
Larry Wayne Richards (former Trust Board member, Professor Emeritus and former Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto)
Ontario trains
My first views of Ontario were from a passenger train 45 years ago. In 1972, I crossed the border at Detroit and took a train from Windsor to Toronto. From my window, I experienced the southwestern Ontario landscape – rolling green farmland and orderly towns – unfolding like frames
Janet Haughton
Naturally beautiful!
- Janet Haughton, Canuck It Up Festival Amherstburg, downtown Amherstburg, August 6, 2017
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
Rozyur Rahman
I like Ontario because we can go hiking in many forests. I can play in parks and playgrounds.
- Rozyur Rahman, Ontario Science Centre, July 21, 2017
Tracy Lawson
My name is Tracy Lawson and I am a direct descendant of Enerals Griffin. I learned all about my amazing lineage through my father, Dave Lawson, who is pictured here in front of Griffin House.
He learned of his heritage and family history late in life; it was featured in the attached video when the
Fool’s Paradise
This property sits on the ecologically sensitive, geologically significant Scarborough Bluffs that display sediments left by glaciers over 70,000 years ago during the last phase of the Pleistocene epoch. Aboriginal peoples may have inhabited this site as early as 8,000 B.C. Scottish immigrant James
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
The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell (29th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario)
The conscience of our province
Ontario’s Legislative Building, completed in 1893, is a magnificent structure filled with stories from the most significant moments in our province’s modern history. The place is replete with traditions. One of the more recent ones is the hosting of the Lieutenant Go
Michael Runtz (educator, naturalist, author and nature photographer)
Drawn back to Algonquin
Being a lifelong naturalist whose goal has been to explore Ontario’s natural history, I’ve come to appreciate just how rich this province’s biodiversity is. The north boasts the southernmost tundra in the world, home to polar bears and Arctic fox. The south harbours vestige
Jen Brennan
Many people are not aware that the Unitarian Universalism faith has been around in Canada since the late 1800s. The congregation in Ottawa began on Elgin Street in 1898.
To better serve the community, an award-winning building was erected on Cleary Avenue (Algonquin Avenue at the time) on five acr
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
Lazzelle Gelias
My home on NATIVE LAND!!
Megweetch!
- Lazzelle Gelias - National Aboriginal Day at Fort York National Historic Site - June 21, 2017
Deepa Mehta (director, producer and screenwriter)
Ontario’s rich diversity
When I think of Ontario, I think of inclusion, diversity and the resulting richness it brings to our province. In a world that is becoming alarmingly xenophobic and nativist, we are in my opinion a haven for the ‘other’.
Watch us in the film Sam and Me set in Toronto, a
Beth Hanna (Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Heritage Trust)
Ontario has amazingly creative souls. The writings of Thomas King, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Al Purdy. The music of Glenn Gould, Gordon Lightfoot, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and Sarah Harmer. The paintings of Norval Morrisseau, Doris McCarthy, A.Y. Jackson, Daphne Odjig and the carvings of B
Janice Finkle, Adam Leslie and Ian Leslie
Amazing Provincial Parks! We have camped over the years at both canoe-in and drive-in Parks. Our family connects and explores together.
- Janice Finkle, Adam Leslie and Ian Leslie at Kingston Penitentiary Museum - Doors Open Kingston, June 17, 2017
Julie Dorsey
Diverse.
- Julie Dorsey, Emancipation Day celebration at Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Dresden, August 5, 2017
Carl Benn (Department of History, Ryerson University)
Edwardian home photos
I possess 16 photographs from c.1905 of my great-grandparents’ home in St. Catharines. At a personal level, I like these pictures because they record details about the life of my ancestors. The images also show some furnishings I knew growing up in the 1950s and 1960s because