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Honing their research skills while furthering the University of Toronto’s commitment to support Indigenous knowledge and reconciliation — it’s all in a day’s work for dedicated students in the Research Opportunities Program (ROP), which connects Arts & Science undergraduates with faculty-led research projects.
Undergraduates in Professor Pamela Klassen’s Department for the Study of Religion ROP course assumed leading roles during Mounds & Memory: Understanding the Serpent Mounds at Hiawatha First Nation, a special gathering of researchers, artists, Elders and community members focusing on ancient mounds and earthworks around the Great Lakes.
The itinerary on Nov. 13 featured a full array of public events organized by the Art Museum at the St. George campus, including tours by ROP students, who guided visitors through profound exhibits with respect and expertise, combining Indigenous, academic and artistic ways of knowing.
Sharing knowledge
In Simcoe Hall, portraits of past U of T leaders have been temporarily set aside to make way for contemporary portraits by Indigenous women photographers in an exhibition called acknowledging the land.
Undergraduate students Biinizi Smith and Teri Mekanak led tours of the works by artists including Caroline Monnet and Dana Claxton that honour Indigenous continuity and resilience in confronting the colonial occupation of the land. Several portraits deliberately obscure faces — covered in intricate beadwork or turned to show only hair.
“These portraits are not about one individual, they're about a people,” says Smith, a second-year English major with University College and a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.
“People genuinely wanted to learn more about acknowledging the land and it gives me hope for the future,” says Mekanak, a first-year student with Woodsworth College, and a member of Bearskin Lake First Nation.
Across Front Campus at the Art Museum, a crowd lined up to see the Earthwork exhibition, curated by Mikinaak Migwans, curator of Indigenous art and assistant professor in the Department of Art History, and a co-organizer of the Mounds & Memory project.
Tour leaders Grace Blumell, a third-year history major with University College, and Annika Kohli, a second-year health and disease specialist with Victoria College, led attendees to explore Indigenous relationships with earthworks through sculpture, video, photography and installations.
“These works are meant to spark conversation about Indigenous knowledge and art history and recognizing biases,” says Blumell. “It's an opportunity to reevaluate long-held ideas and allow another perspective to guide your internal dialogue.”
The exhibit features Art Hunter's photographs of controlled burns renewing the rare prairie oak savannah ecology of the Manitou Mounds at Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre. Hunter, a member of Rainy River First Nations, has been contributing to Pamela Klassen’s ROP courses for many years, sharing his knowledge with students working on projects connected to Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung.
Other artists in Earthwork include BUSH Gallery's fireweed impressions on tipi canvas that reference the 215 unmarked graves of children discovered in May 2021 at the former B.C. residential school on the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.
A beadwork installation by Protect the Tract Collective maps contested Haudenosaunee territory in southwestern Ontario — the Haldimand Tract — depicting four fish species lost from the Grand River in raised beadwork and porcupine quill embroidery.
The day also featured a quillwork workshop at Hart House; a fire gathering at Ziibiing, U of T’s newest Indigenous outdoor space; the launch of Michael Belmore's outdoor sculpture drift on King’s College Circle; and panel discussions bringing together the Mounds Research Collective — Klassen, Migwans and Assistant Professor Chadwick Cowie of U of T Scarborough — alongside artists Lisa Myers, Belmore and Hunter.
Invaluable undergraduate experience
Mounds & Memory programming continued the next day at Hiawatha First Nation near Peterborough, Ont., where Klassen’s undergraduate students attended a two-day workshop that included a visit to the Serpent Mounds on Rice Lake, cared for by Hiawatha First Nation.
“It’s an opportunity for them to be treated as peers and get a seat at the table with professors and other academics,” says Faculty of Information alum Megan Hull (PhD 2024), a Mounds & Memory organizer and postdoctoral researcher with Klassen’s lab.
“I've been teaching ROP and Research Excursion Program undergraduates for many years,” says Klassen. “Travelling with them and learning together from Indigenous knowledge holders has transformed my research process. This year, working together with Mik Migwans has made the Art Museum a new place for doing this kind of collaborative work.”
Each step matters
Initiatives like Mounds & Memory, supported by the Faculty of Arts & Science, the Art Museum and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, create meaningful spaces for Indigenous knowledge and voices at U of T.
For Mekanak and Smith, both students from Indigenous communities, these experiences represent meaningful steps toward reconciliation.
“Little by little, a little becomes a lot,” says Smith. “Each step matters.”
Exhibitions are open to the public. Acknowledging the land can be viewed in Simcoe Hall on weekdays from 9:30 am to 4 pm, and Earthwork continues at the Art Museum until December 20. Belmore's outdoor sculpture drift is installed on King’s College Circle through March 2026.