The Davenport Songbook is a local composition project led by Arts4All artists Lisa Bozikovic and Johnny Spence that invites community members to explore their own narratives of harmony and dissonance through songwriting. Launching Arts4All’s Music Club in 2016, the project develops, performs and records original songs by Davenport residents. The Davenport Songbook and four of our community composers were recently featured on CBC Radio on the Doc Project.
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.
