People’s Archive of Rural Ontario (PARO)

Rural Ontario is not just one thing – one experience, one type of land, one form of community. A farming community within striking distance of Toronto and a First Nations community in Northern Ontario will have very different stories to tell about their experiences of rural life. PARO is a living archive of rural Ontario – a widely accessible, ever-growing, online, multimedia repository.

Who We Are

Belinda Leach

Steering Committee

Sharada Srinivasan

Steering Committee

Karli Longthorne

Graduate Student Coordinator

Our Vision

PARO aims to mobilize and amplify rural voices and stories and to contribute to the revitalization of rural Ontario. It was developed to organize, preserve, and make freely accessible the records and voices of rural Ontarians.

PARO is currently engaged in collecting stories, highlighting personal and community narratives of rural resilience from a broad range of sources to be produced for the archive in forms of text, audio, video, and/or photography.

PARO welcomes submissions from all persons, particularly those who identify as Indigenous, racialized, or have disabilities, and from persons of all sexual identities and gender identities.

Rural Community Connections in the Life of Dorothy Wright-Wallace

Arthur Wright (Dorothy’s Father) in his WW1 uniform along with a military dog, 1914-1918. Photo credit: Dorothy Wallace.

“Our Problem is Political, and Our Solution is Political”: The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, Activism and Social Change

Gabriel marching at the 2016 Migrant Workers Caravan in Ottawa. Photo Credits: Christopher Katsarov.

Who’s Listening

Karli Longthorne

Peoples Archive of Rural Ontario

www.ruralontario.org

Events

06
March

People’s Archive of Rural Ontario (PARO) Workshop on Racialized Rural Ontario

People’s Archive of Rural Ontario (PARO) Workshop on Racialized Rural Ontario

Date Mar 6 - 7, 2025Time All Day EventVenue University of GuelphOrganizer PAROWebsite View Events Website

Understanding the experiences of racialized communities in rural Ontario is crucial for building knowledge and informing better policies and practices. PARO is organizing an in-person two-day workshop on March 6 and 7, 2025, at the University of Guelph. The workshop wil...

More Info

Check out our recent stories!

Chaudary Poultry Farms: An intergenerational legacy of resilience and success

We met Imran Chaudary and his wife Lisa at their home next to their farm in March 2023. They were fasting on the eve of Ramadan, yet welcomed us with a lavishly laid out assortment of snacks and refreshments, offering a glimpse of south Asian hospitality…

From Calm to Chaos: My Experience Living Through a Tornado in Rural Ontario

In the summer of 2006, I returned home from the University of Guelph to my small town in the Ottawa Valley, in order to be close to family and to ground myself in the beauty and peace of nature…

Buxton’s 100th Homecoming Celebration

Each Labour Day the small town of North Buxton, Ontario fills with music, food, family, games, and baseball during the annual Buxton Homecoming Celebration. This year residents celebrate the 100th anniversary of this much-loved event…

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