In this episode of Don River Radio, we speak with Helen Mills and John Wilson of Lost Rivers Walks, proponents of Toronto's lost (& found) rivers, about revealing forgotten places in the city, ceremony, sensing, re-rivering, and their work "bringing back the Don."
Intro features a hotline call in by Bridget Lu! If you have stories to share about the Don, call in to (416) 596-0249 and leave an audio message to be featured in a future episode of DRR.
Guest Bios:
Helen Mills (born in Johannesburg, South Africa; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is the founder of Lost Rivers, a project of the Toronto Green Community. When she came to Toronto she noticed the sunken park near her house. Years later she learned that it was a remnant ravine and home to lost Mud Creek. Mesmerized, she wanted to paint blue lines on the street and over buildings, to name the creeks and bring them back to the surface of our awareness. Then the Lost River Walks began through the alchemy of the very first public meeting of the Toronto Green Community (1994). More than 33,000 people have walked on a Lost River since then.
John Wilson (born in Youngstown, OH, USA; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an independent community engagement specialist and waterfront advocate. Wilson leads public walks with the Lost Rivers project, a collaboration of the Toronto Green Community and Toronto Field Naturalists. He serves as co-chair of the West Don Lands Committee. From 2000 to 2011, Wilson served as chair of the Task Force to Bring Back the Don, a citizens’ advisory committee of Toronto City Council with a mandate to restore a clean, green, accessible Don River.
http://lostrivers.ca/
About the Podcast
Don River Radio is a ten-part podcast series and call-in hotline on the history, evolution, and future of the Don/Wonscotonach River, hosted by Mare Liberum co-founder Dylan Gauthier with invited guests.
Host: Dylan Gauthier (https://dylangauthier.info/)
Our collective is Mare Liberum (http://www.thefreeseas.org/)
Our project is In Which We Draw A People's Map of the Don River donriverradio.ca
We are hosted by Evergreen Brickworks and Waterfront Toronto and supported by ArtworxTO year of public art
Our audio engineer is Tom Upjohn
Special thanks to our collaborators Shannon Gerard and Maria Hupfield
Music by JANTAR
Project Curators: Charlene Lau, Chloe Catan, and Kari Cwynar
Land Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge that the sacred lands through which the Don River flows are the traditional territories, homelands and nunangat of the respective First Nations, Métis Nations and Inuit who are the long-time stewards of these lands. We acknowledge that Toronto is built on occupied Indigenous territory – the traditional homelands of the Wendat (Wen-dat) and Petun (Pah-toon) First Nations, the Haudenosaunee (Ho-den-O-Show-nee), and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory is governed by Treaty 13 and is subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek Confederacies and allies to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
