Àdisòkàmagan / Nous connaître un peu nous-mêmes / We’ll All Become Stories

Essayist Geoff Martin describes the landscape along the Grand River as a “circuitous route that ties together disparate communities of people who live by the water’s edge.” He confronts the area’s history by way of the Haldimand Tract, land granted in 1784 to the Haudenosaunee for their alliance with the British Crown during the American Revolution, the land his Mennonite ancestors settled on.

Each place-name, along the way, evokes a distinct history, a pattern of settlement, a raison d’etre. These place-names stock the river with human value and make the waters flow with social, political, economic, and environmental importance. In this respect, the Grand River channels a sort of liquid lineage, an archive we can trace backwards; it’s a watery inheritance that belts together large