Indigenous Experiences.
Midland sits on the pre-contact Wendat homeland — Wendake Ehen, "old Wendake" — encompassing what is now Midland, Penetanguishene, and the south Georgian Bay shore. The Huron-Wendat Nation is now seated at Wendake, near Quebec City; the in-Midland visitor product interprets the homeland and the 17th-century Wendat–Jesuit encounter through institutional sites at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and the Huronia Museum's reconstructed Huron / Ouendat Village in Little Lake Park.
The brief.
The Indigenous-content programming in Midland is institutional rather than Nation-led — Ontario Heritage Trust runs Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and the Huronia Museum runs the Huron / Ouendat Village. The Huron-Wendat Nation itself, displaced from this homeland in the 17th-century wars, is seated at Wendake near Quebec City.
Midland also sits on Anishinaabe and Métis traditional territory; the Huronia Métis Council represents Métis Nation of Ontario membership in the region. Sainte-Marie's outdoor programming runs May through October; the Huronia Museum runs year-round with seasonal hours.
Visitors looking for Nation-led programming can find it at Wendake; visitors looking for the homeland-and-encounter narrative on its original ground will find it at Sainte-Marie and the Huron / Ouendat Village.
2. places.
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Sainte-Marie among the Hurons
Ontario Heritage Trust–operated reconstructed 1639–1649 French Jesuit mission to the Wendat; programming covers the 17th-century Wendat–Jesuit encounter and the dispersal of the Wendat following the 1649 Iroquois–Huron wars; on the original mission grounds.
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Huron / Ouendat Village (Huronia Museum)
Reconstructed pre-contact Wendat longhouse village in Little Lake Park; cultural interpretation programming through the Huronia Museum.
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Today's read.
Cool but comfortable for layered effort.
