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6 Indigenous L.J. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/ilj6 and id is 1 raw text is: WELCOME ADDRESS
DARLENE JOHNSTON*
Meegwetch, Elder Grafton Antone. Aaniin, Boozhoo, Sekoh, Tansi, Hello,
Bonjour, and Welcome to the University of Toronto. Elder Grafton Antone
reminded us that sometimes if we are lucky and we ask for something, it is
provided to us. Last night as I was falling asleep I was a bit nervous about
what I would say today. I got as far as Aaniin, Boozhoo, Sekoh, Tansi.
When I woke up this morning, the first thing I thought of was Taddle Creek.
I owe part of this story to my cousin John Borrows. We are both from
the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, and we share the same great-
grandfather, Charles Kegedonce Jones. John was a law professor here at the
University of Toronto before me, and he got to know the history of this place
and its landscape.
Before the University was here, and before the city of Toronto was here,
there was a creek that ran from the high ground up north, all the way down
to the lake. By pioneer times, this creek was known as Taddle Creek. When
Hart House was first built, the southern part of Taddle Creek was dammed
up, which resulted in quite a lovely pond. But the creek still flowed from the
north, down through what is now Philosopher's Walk. By the 1870s, people
started to complain about the creek because it had become a sewer for the
Victorian mansions built along it. The pond was starting to smell. The city's
solution was to bury the creek. So the creek went underground, and this
facilitated the development of other buildings on the university grounds,
including a rugby field at Hart House, our soccer pitch, and eventually the
expansion of this law school. Now we are underground in a space that used
to be shared by the creek, and from time to time the creek makes its
B.A. (Queen's University), LL.B. (University of Toronto), LL.M. (University of Toronto).
After working as Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Professor
Johnston resigned her academic position in order to coordinate land claims research and
litigation for her community, the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. Her advocacy contributed
to the judicial recognition of her people's treaty right to the commercial fishery and to the
recovery and protection of burial grounds and other culturally significant sites within their
traditional territory. She joined the University of Toronto in 2002 as an Assistant Professor and
Aboriginal Student Advisor. Her teaching areas include Aboriginal Law and Property Law.
Her current research focuses on the relationship between totemic identity, territoriality and
governance. In 2006, Professor Johnston was featured in a special exhibit as one of the
University of Toronto Law School's Women Trailblazers.
Indigenous Law Journal/Volume 6/Issue 1/2007

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