Next time you visit Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, make some time to view the Indigenous art installations that are proudly represented at the airport and contribute to an enhanced passenger experience.

Visitors to the airport are greeted by the Maanjidowin: The Gathering sculpture, located on the dock wall overlooking the city, the Bay of Spirits Contemporary First Nations Art Gallery, located in the Passenger Terminal, and the four unique Moccasin Identifier pillars in the departures area of the Passenger Terminal.

Maanjidowin: The Gathering

One of the first things you will see after landing at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and one of the last as you depart, is Maanjidowin: The Gathering, located on the dock wall overlooking the Western Gap.

This large-scale granite and bronze sculpture was created by David M. General, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan of the Six Nations and it recognizes the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and their relationship to the land, air and water on which the airport now operates. It was produced in partnership with PortsToronto.

The sculpture features three mythical fishers – Mukwa-kwe (Bear), Nigig-kwe (Otter) and Migizi-kwe (Eagle) – who have come to the estuaries and islands along Toronto’s Lake Ontario shoreline to fish.

The canoe in which the fishers sit is inscribed with words and symbols of significance to the Mississaugas of the Credit, including the Medicine Wheel and the Seven Grandfather Teachings, which are guiding principles that provide the moral and cultural foundation of life; and poetry from the current Gimaa (Chief) R. Stacey Laforme.

To learn more about Maanjidowin: The Gathering click here.

Bay of Spirits Contemporary First Nations Art Gallery

The Bay of Spirits Contemporary First Nations Art Gallery is located in the Passenger Terminal. This gallery brings together works from artists both local to the Greater Toronto Area and across Ontario, including Ojibway, Cree and Oji Cree peoples and it honours the Indigenous elders, leaders, artists and community members that have lived upon the lands the airport now operates on.

Moccasin Identifier

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is also the first airport in Canada to support and host a Moccasin Identifier. Located in the departures area of the Passenger Terminal, are four unique Moccasin Identifier pillars that promote public awareness of the ancestral presence of Indigenous people and communities. To learn more about the Moccasin Identifier Project, click here.

Moccasins on the Pillars

‍Seneca Moccasin

Native tanned deer skin with applied beaded decoration on black velvet. Two-piece construction with textile apron inserted between forepart sides of bottom unit. Back T-seam. Lined with white and pink textile. Added black velvet collar. Native tanned deer skin, silk, thread, velvet, beads and paper.

Anishinaabe Moccasin

Pair of eastern woodland moccasins with gathered centre front seam, decorated with red and white quills and tin cones on each shoe. Decorated cuffs are separate pieces, and have been attached with sinew thread. Quill decoration also on the centre back seam. White quill lines along front and back edge of collars have red pigment. The mishupishu design along collar has stylized reference of symbolic cross-hatching and the double peek refers to the ears of the underwater panther.

Huron-Wendat Moccasin

Black smoked native tanned deerskin embroidered moccasins. Two piece construction with deerskin apron inserted into up turned crimped forepart of the bottom unit. Back seam. Straights. Thread sewn. Attached deer skin collar with red silk binding and ties. Apron and collar embroidered in moose hair and quill dyed red, blue, green, yellow, pink, and orange with floral designs within a blue and white geometric and curvilinear border.

Cree Moccasin

These moccasins originate from the Red River area from about 1820. Two-piece moccasins have an apron inserted at the top of the foot. Quillwork is woven separately on a loom and then applied to each apron and suspended from the collars. Geometric patterns form triangles, stars, chevrons, and thunderbirds. Three bands of bird quill piping decorate the joint between the apron and bottom pieces.