Wahnabezee and the future [hi]stories of place is a project supporting the co-creation and circulation of community narratives along the waters of the Detroit River. Wahnabezee, also known as Belle Isle Park, is an enchanted island, a real site and an imagined place, and a fluid commons of sorts. For centuries, the island has served as refuge and sanctuary, a shared natural resource for humans and non-human species alike.

Through the collection and circulation of real and imagined narratives, memories, images, maps and other traces, we aim to steward the future of the public park as a pluralistic cultural commons, a place of belonging and wonder. While narratives of the island abound, many accounts remain incomplete, largely unacknowledged or have been erased from our collective memory. What [hi]stories are yet to be told, and who may tell them? How could they be shared and circulated?