Cabbagetown’s First People -

Before the Europeans

Plaque located at: Riverdale Park, Winchester Street, Toronto, ON, Canada

The plaque is situated in the upper part of Riverdale Park West, at the intersection of the 2 main paths, just north of the splash pool.

Centuries before there was a Cabbagetown community, and long before French fur traders or the British settlement called York, many different Aboriginal cultures such as the Anishinabek, Haudenosaunee, Wendat, Eries, Petuns, and Neutrals came together to trade, hold councils and seasonal ceremonies in this region of Ontario. Many of these peoples were drawn to the nearby Don Valley to hunt, fish, and trade.

The Indigenous name of the Don River was Wonscotonach which means “burning bright point.” The name may refer to the practice of torchlight salmon spearing on the Don River.

Wild rice also used to grow where Castle Frank Brook and the Don River meet (just east of today’s intersection of Rosedale Valley Road and the Bayview Extension) and there are likely remains of indigenous camps in the area. However, their location is not know as the river overflowed numerous times. Also, the straightening and channeling of the Don River in the 1880s and the construction of various railways and roads like the Bayview Extension and the Don Valley Parkway have made the location of these remains impossible to identify.

However, in the late 1880s, just across the Valley from Cabbagetown (at the level of Withrow Avenue in Riverdale), archeologist David Boyle examined an Indigenous cemetery disturbed during roadwork in the area. Boyle also found some artifacts like pottery fragments, a stone axe, etc. He also found a 7,000 year old slate point showing that Indigenous people have occupied these lands for thousands of years.

The confluence of these many cultures gave birth to a great circle of Indigenous civilization with a rich ceremonial, ritual, artistic and political legacy. We still all share these lands.