Greetings from The Brown Homestead!
The Brown Homestead is a unique, community-oriented heritage site located in the southwest corner of St. Catharines, home to the oldest house in the city (c. 1796). We are also the caretakers of the Norton Cabin, a log cabin built by Mohawk Chief Teyoninhokarawen — also known as John Norton — around the year 1817. As the keepers of these significant built heritage structures, on land that is within the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples, we recognize our duty as stewards and caretakers of that land.
Today we are delighted to share a bit about our organization’s journey toward reconciliation. Our Reconciliation Action Plan serves among the guiding principles by which we operate on a day-to-day basis, in terms of both our internal organizational culture and our community outreach and programming activities. One step of this plan is to require our staff and board members to take the Indigenous Canada course offered by the University of Alberta as part of their onboarding process.
This is a necessary step because as a local heritage organization we are responsible for learning about our nation’s past, as we partake in various forms of public education. As such, we believe in the honest exploration of history from multiple perspectives, even when it is challenging. We are committed to doing so in community with everyone who shares that history with us.
See what our staff had to say about the Indigenous Canada course, and learn more about our recent activity by reading this Resource.
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Jessica Linzel
Director of Community Engagement
The Brown Homestead
