First Friends

First Friends

First Friends explores stories of first friendships through the pageantry and parading arts. Entering its third and final year, First Friends has aimed to engage and include the children, families and caregivers who visit Davenport Ontario Early Years Centres in our neighbourhood.  First Friends will culminate in Here Is My Friend! a large scale community pageant and parade on Canada Day in Perth Square Park celebrating three years of story gathering, art making and dramatic exploration of community stories. Here is My Friend will feature original musical compositions, puppetry, and fabric animation and installations, all devised to be accessible for very young, their families and caregivers. The parade will weave three communities Arts4All has worked with over many years into one encompassing performance event: Perth Square Park, Pelham Park Gardens and the DPNCHC.

Toronto is home to a large indigenous population including residential school survivors and intergenerational family members who have been impacted by the history and legacy of the residential school system. The sacred land on which we stand has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.