Tkaronto

Photo: Tkaronto

In my desire to leave this city, I have been reaching out to come to terms with it. From the beginning there have always been pleasant surprises mixed in with the frustrations and 'je ne sais quoi'.

Recently the city celebrated its 175th birthday and I attended some celebrations at the City Hall, which included a screening of the film Tkaronto. The film, which had premiered the fall before at the ImagiNATIVE Film festival (an excellent film festival), followed an aboriginal woman and a Metis man who shared several days together in the city. The film is about identity in all of its forms. The film's name comes from a Mohawk word, from which Toronto's name evolved.

One of the remarks that resonated with me was made by an elder to the woman who was interviewing him. He remarked how there was nothing in the city that reflected back to aboriginals who they were or where they came from. And that is true. Beyond several missions dedicated to helping down-and-out aboriginals downtown, there is nothing.

However, I am not aboriginal, and I can't say I feel reflected here either. I only feel reflected when I have more of a sense of nature and my place in it.

Last week, on PBS, the film Toronto: 175 premiered, and it did a nice job of giving this city a sense of history, of grounding, which to me it has always lacked. It is nice to know that every neighbourhood is not merely a tourist attraction of some sort.

In exploring for this post, I accidently came across, in an online thread, the best description of the city I have ever seen. One I wish I had been able to put into words. Birdonmyshoulder wrote in 2000:

I've decided that Toronto is a city with a hole in the centre. Sometimes people fall in. Sometimes they hover around the edge, loving the feeling of almost jumping, almost being sucked into it. And sometimes, you can see a lucky few being tossed into the air above the giant hole in the centre, lifted by the air from below. If you know where to look you can find these people, and you might even get lifted up yourself.