Settling in Canada

For thousands of years before French, English, Spanish and other European people started sailing to this land, there were people living here. There were no borders, no countries, no provinces or territories. Inuit, First Nations and Métis hunted, fished, trapped, farmed and built communities here.

Starting about 400 years ago, people from Europe began building their own homes, often over top of Indigenous settlements. (What’s the story of your home?

The Europeans had to change what they ate and the money they used. And as their numbers grew, they continued to take land from Indigenous people.

Some kids were even sent here on their own.

All over Canada, there are places where you can see for yourself how both Indigenous people and settlers lived in earlier times.