Descriptive Transcript: The Next Wave of Indigenous Collaboration

This is a descriptive transcript for our YouTube Video: The Next Wave of Indigenous Collaboration

[DESCRIPTION: Kristina Verner, Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Innovation at Waterfront Toronto, speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: Each year we talk about the progress on the waterfront. This year we advanced Indigenous-led placekeeping and strengthened relationships with Indigenous communities as part of our commitment to ensuring Indigenous voices, knowledge, and cultures remain at the heart of waterfront revitalization.] 

[DESCRIPTION: Indigenous dancers in traditional outfits dance in a park. A group of four Indigenous people singing and drumming on a large drum. A dancer dancing in front of the drummers. A large canoe on the shore of a river. A woman sitting on a boulder and drumming next to a singer wearing a ribbon skirt.] 

[AUDIO: Now we’re embarking on the next wave of waterfront revitalization – even more ambitious than what’s come before.] 

[DESCPRIPTION: A large group of canoeists with colourful flags in the boats travelling under a bridge. Text on screen reads ‘The Next Wave. Integrated Annual Report, 2025-2026’. Fred Martin, Senior Project Manager, Waterfront, Indigenous Affairs Office, City of Toronto, speaks to the camera.]

[AUDIO: When I think about reconciliation in terms of city-building I see moving beyond acknowledgement into action as one of the next logical steps. We want to acknowledge the presence of Indigenous people in this area and we want to work with that acknowledgment towards actionable projects and things that really benefit the Indigenous people.] 

[DESCRIPTION: Video of Fred Martin speaking at a podium inside a pavilion covered in Indigenous motifs. A drum circle. Other speakers at the podium inside the pavilion, including some wearing Indigenous regalia or other symbols. Footage of the audience listening to the speakers. Kristina Verner speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: Indigenous languages, knowledge, and ways of life have shaped the waterfront for many generations – since long before a city called "Toronto” came to be. Today, that enduring connection continues to inform and inspire the work taking place across the waterfront.] 

[DESCRIPTION: Wooden sculptures of Indigenous Clan animals including a bear and fox with pups. A fire pit. Concrete sculptures on the bank of a river. Fred Martin speaks to the Camera] 

[AUDIO: We look at 7 generations, where we look to the past and the way that Indigenous people really worked with nature and with each other to survive but also thrive. And when we start to look at projects in the city, whether those be building parks or neighbourhoods, learning from the way that the past knowledge is very important in moving us forward in a new way of building cities.] 

[DESCRIPTION: Aerial footage of a pavilion shaped like a drum. People walking and kayaking in a park. An interpretive sign in a park, the text is in an Indigenous language and says Mii mama Namewag danaamiwaad. Aerial footage of a building. Small islands in a cove in front of the skyline of the City of Toronto. A large group of people sitting on an event lawn in a park. Cyclists on a recreational path in a park. Aerial footage of the park pans up to see the Toronto skyline. Kristina Verner speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: Indigenous leadership, design insights, and ways of knowing have guided vital aspects of waterfront revitalization to date, from the renaturalization of the mouth of the Don River to public realm work at Quayside and on Ookwemin Minising.]

[DESCRIPTION: Aerial footage of the new mouth of the Don River. Rendering of people next to a planting bed and building. Rendering of people sitting on benches looking at the lake. Young trees planted in a park. Kristina Verner speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: It's fitting that the new island at the river's mouth, and the park that surrounds it, now carry Anishinaabemowin names – Ookwemin Minising and Biidaasige Park – honouring a language spoken in this place for centuries.] 

[DESCRIPTION: Aerial footage of a park next to a river. Text on screen reads: Ookwemin Minising (oh-kway-min min-ih-sing) means “place of the black cherry trees” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwemowin. Biidaasige (dee-daw-sig-geh) means “sunlight shining toward us” in Anishinaabemowin. Fred Martin speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: I get really excited about some of the names, the return of language and culture to this area. Whether it be public art, the story telling and some of the place names in this area. They are really starting to become part of this city. People are starting to say these names and visit these areas. They are really speaking to this history of this area. They start to see there was a culture here, that there were people here.] 

[DESCRIPTION: An art piece showing the silhouette of a turtle next to a road. A concrete slab showing a wetland in bas relief. A man looks at the relief of a goose in flight on a concrete slab. A family walks through a park holding hands, then sits by the water, and plays on a large swing. Aerial footage of the park. A wooden stake is used to support and shape a marker tree – adorned with Indigenous symbols, a strip of fabric with a braid on it. An immature tree being bent for the traditional Indigenous wayfinding. Kristina Verner speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: The waterfront is also home to vital social infrastructure envisioned by and designed for Indigenous peoples. Anishnawbe Health Toronto provides health care and other services tailored to Indigenous clients in a new building recognized internationally for its extraordinary design. ] 

[DESCRIPTION: People walk past a building with a fridge over the entryway. Aerial and street level footage of the Anishnawbe Health Toronto building.] 

[AUDIO: We share the conviction that “Indigenous communities must be engaged not only as designers and contributors in shaping a vibrant new neighbourhood, but also as beneficiaries of a neighbourhood that truly works for Indigenous peoples.” ] 

[DESCRIPTION: Timelapse footage of building a public art piece. On screen text reads In Equilibrium, Ludovic Boney, Wendat First Nation. Kristina Verner speaks to the camera.] 

[AUDIO: This waterfront's story began with Indigenous peoples, and as this place enters its next chapter, Indigenous leadership, knowledge, and presence remain essential to the placekeeping work that will shape its future.] 

[DESCRIPTION: An animation of waves with on-screen text that reads: The Next Wave of Waterfront Revitalization. New housing. New destinations. New Transit.] 

[DESCPRIPTION: The logos of Waterfront Toronto, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the City of Toronto appear. On screen text reads: Discover more waterfrontoronto.ca.]