The Project

This project is an Indigenous-led study of one of the world's oldest refineries. We hope this project will be of service to the Aamjiwnaang community, on whose land this refinery is located. It may also be of interest to educators, the general public and other land protectors. We have created this project with consultation from the Aamjiwanaang Environmental Committee, and have used an ongoing community review process to share and receive feedback about the project and its contents from interested community members. This project is nothing without the direction and contribution of community members, and we invite anyone interested to connect, correct, and contribute in ways big and small.

This project turns the tables on the conventions of research: instead of having university and government researchers study Indigenous people to understand environmental problems, this project has Indigenous researchers investigating a polluter and the role of the government in allowing pollution. 

The Land and Refinery project is created by the Environmental Data Justice Lab in the Technoscience Research Unit, University of Toronto. 

The Environmental Data Justice Lab is an Indigenous-led lab that examines, creates tools and responses to the relationships between data, pollution and colonialism.

 The project is co-led by Vanessa Gray (Aamjiwnaang First Nation), Michelle Murphy (Métis, Winnipeg), and Kristen Bos (urban Métis), along with lab members Reena Shadaan, Beze Gray (Aamjiwnaang First Nation), and Fernanda Yanchapaxi (Kichwa-Mestiza). 

Our project website is designed by Nomadic Labs

Art drawings are by Dylan Miner. 

The research for this work is supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant and the establishment of the Environmental Data Justice Lab was supported by a Connaught Global Challenge Award.