This website is an Indigenous-led, community-led resource about Canada’s Chemical Valley.

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

We hope this project will be of service to the Aamjiwnaang community, on whose land Chemical Valley, and the world’s oldest running refinery, is located. It may also be of interest to educators, the general public and other land protectors.

We have created the research and information here with consultation from the Aamjiwanaang Environmental Committee, and with leadership from Vanessa Gray, as well as Beze Gray. We have used an ongoing community review process to share and receive feedback about the projects from community members. The information on this site 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 projects here turn 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 polluters 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 lab includes community and academic researchers.

Website design is by Dreamside Digital.

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. Research since 2023 on community approaches to pollution data and chemical risk analysis is supported in part by the Acceleration Consortium Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Meet the Team

  • Vanessa Gray

    Vanessa Gray

    Aamjiwnaang First Nation

    Vanessa Gray is Co-Director of the Environmental Data Justice Lab. She is an Anishnaabe kwe from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, located in Canada’s Chemical Valley. As a grassroots organizer, land defender, and educator, Vanessa works to decolonize environmental justice research by linking scholarly findings to traditional teachings. She continues to take part in a diversity of tactics such as direct action, classroom lectures, co-hosting Toxic Tours, and Water Gatherings

  • M. Murphy

    M. Murphy

    Red River Métis, Winnipeg

    M Murphy is the Co-Director of the Technoscience Research Unit, and co-leads the Environmental Data Justice Lab. Their research focuses on pollution, chemicals, data, health, and colonialism from Indigenous and anti-colonial methods. They are a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice, and Professor in History and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto.

  • Kristen Bos

    Kristen Bos

    Red River Métis

    Kristen Bos is the Co-Director of the Technoscience Research Unit. Kristen is an Indigenous feminist researcher trained in archaeological approaches to material culture. She is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Science and Technology Studies in the Historical Studies Department at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her work is concerned wi hthe relationship between colonial, gendered, and environmental violence.