Longing Belonging, 100 Years 100 Stories, a community engagement project and exhibition organized by the collective Long Time No See (LTNS), tackles Canada’s troubled colonialist history by marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act. LTNS members engaged with local Markham communities, interviewing and photographing people in spaces that elicited sentiments of belonging, and gathering images and stories to be presented in the gallery. It is important to note that 2023 is also the centenary of the signing of The Williams Treaties—bureaucratic legislation signed by the Government of Canada and seven First Nations resulting in the surrender of the final portion of southern Ontario territory to the Canadian Government, including the land that the Varley Art Gallery sits on today.

With this project, LTNS asks us all to reflect on the questions: What is our place on this land? What is remembered? What is forgotten? What is our role in reconciliation? How do we all belong?