I’m standing along a decaying subway platform at Osgoode station — the tracks are flooded with water, moss covers the walls having grown over a caution sign, and a tree springs from the opening tunnel on my right.

There are canoes and paddles and broken chairs and ripped copies of today’s Toronto Star scattered across the platform. A questions pops up before my eyes, first in the Wendat language, then its English translation:

Where did the Creator put your people?

It’s a question the producers of the short virtual reality film Biidaaban: First Light want viewers to think about as they examine their place in history as well as their role in shaping the future of the city and the planet.

Throughout the eight-minute film, which can be seen at Nathan Phillips Square (where I’m actually standing, wearing VR goggles) for free until Monday, viewers can take a 360-degree look through a Toronto re-imagined as a city reclaimed by nature.

Nathan Phillips Square is flooded and transformed. Plants push through the cracks on the surface. Birds are perched on walls. Across the street, the rooftop of a building is also dotted with plants and flowers. A traditional hut sits in the middle of the square. The city’s skyline is engulfed in smog, and buildings around the square seem to be crumbling, while others — like the CN Tower — look shiny and untarnished.

Anishinaabe artist and creative director Lisa Jackson said the goal was to reflect a futuristic image of Toronto where nature was taking over.

“This is Indigenous futurism,” she said of the film, which is narrated in native languages (Wendat, Mohawk and Ojibway) to provide an understanding of the city’s ancient roots.

“It’s about taking these ideas that everyone thinks are stuck in the past, and projecting them into an imagined future. This is an Indigenous city as well. It’s not just the small reserves and remote places that are Indigenous.”

Jackson worked with renowned 3D artist Mathew Borrett and design agency Jam3, as well as producers from the National Film Board.

She said the theme of reclaiming Indigenous presence in urban centres has recently come into the spotlight, as the country reacts to recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation report. The project is about showing there’s no contradiction in respecting traditional Indigenous practices and being in modern-day reality, she said.

“I go to ceremonies and I drink cappuccino and make VR and watch Netflix,” said Jackson, noting the city’s current infrastructure must make room for projects that reflect Indigenous values.

She said, on a broader scale, the film aims to remind people to take better care of the environment, the way Indigenous people lived in it.

“This planet is suffering. The lands and the water are suffering, and Canada is no saint when it comes to how we treat the environment,” she said. “We have forest fires. We have record temperatures. It’s crucial that we think about our relationship to land and waters and territories differently.”

Shane Gerard, the city’s senior communications co-ordinator, said the city’s teaming with Jackson to screen the film is part of an initiative to increase Indigenous presence in the city.

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Other projects include the upcoming Indian Residential School Survivors Legacy Celebration, a free cultural gathering taking place next month, in collaboration with the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre. There’s also the Indigenous Arts and Culture Partnerships Fund, as well as the Indigenous Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, both of which are planned in the coming months.

Gilbert Ngabo discusses a project depicting a future Toronto | Story Behind the Story

Biidaaban: First Light has already won awards from well-known international festivals like Tribeca Film Festival 2018, Los Angeles Film Festival 2018 and Melbourne Film Festival 2018. It is set to be featured in next month’s ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival taking place in Toronto.

Bonnie Kawennakon Whitlow, a Mohawk, who interprets a Thanksgiving address in the film in the Mohawk language, said the film is a reminder to be thankful for — and be humbled by — all the natural things in the universe.

She said modernity has forgotten the original connection of humans with nature.

“Look at all the cement all over the place. You can’t connect to the earth if you’re always walking across the concrete,” she said.

“Natural world is taking care of you and you don’t even know it because you’re disconnected from it.”

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