Watch Our Garden Grow!

Iga'taqu'tieg - We are planting

Drawing on research we’ve conducted over the past 5 years, we are building an interactive and educational memorial park in Eskasoni. The park integrates three core components:

CEREMONY SPACE

This space honours our Elders and their teachings, serving as a site of remembrance to those who experienced the residential school system, and how this system continues to impact our community today. This space includes an area for a grandmother moon ceremony, a sweat lodge, a tee pee, and a sacred fire pit.

HEALING MEANDERING ROUTE

This route integrates the medicine wheel and the Seven Sacred Teachings. The area is modelled on the teachings of Murdena Marshall, and reflects the researching findings regarding healthy relationships and what is needed to support children to have healthy personal identities.

MEMORIAL SITE

The memorial site honours the missing and murdered Indigenous women that have been taken from us. It is made up of a meditative labyrinth with a red smudge bowl at the centre. The labyrinth has seven circuits indicating each of the seven sacred teachings. The hope is that visitors to the garden will walk the labyrinth and reflect on how each of the teachings can be incorporated into their own lives, relationships, and communities.

MEMORIAL GARDEN

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Starting from scratch....

We have worked hard over many years (nearly a decade!) to get to where we are today. Below is a timeline of where we came from, and where we plan to go over the next few years. We are so thrilled to see these initiatives bear fruit!

The Spaces & Places study helps us understand how communities in Atlantic Canada can facilitate cultural and civic engagement of youth.

Findings in Eskasoni are shared with the community in a mural on the wall of the crisis centre, overlooking a healing garden.

Lessons from Spaces & Places

The Networks for Change and Wellbeing study explores the experience of sexual and gender-based violence against Indigenous young women in Canada, and Black young women in South Africa.

In Eskasoni, our youth-led study (Change the Silence) expands to include young men, with funding from the Nova Scotia Sexual Violence Strategy Committee (NS Department of Community Services). Findings highlight various factors that increase experiences of SGBV and silence those who have experienced it. Preventative and support measures echo findings from Spaces & Places.

The More than Words study expands on the Networks for Change and Wellbeing study within Canada, focusing on the impact youth art advocacy can have on youth themselves and their communities. The project draws on previous findings, providing youth resources to implement advocacy projects and mentor other young people to do the same.

In Eskasoni our youth developed a colouring book for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and the people who support them. We are also developing the memorial garden, drawing on additional funding from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Commemoration Fund (Canadian Department for Women and Gender Equality). Over the course of the project, a collaboration started with young men from the Healthy Living Project (a young men’s relational and mental health project provided by Eskasoni Mental Health Services).

With funding allocated for a legacy project (Standing Together Domestic Violence Shift Grant, Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Young Women) the young men contributed to the garden. We have also recently received additional funding from Heritage Canada’s Commemorating the history and legacy of residential schools fund.

2012 - 2015

2015 - 2020

2019 - 2023

Gegina'matimgewe'l - Lessons

Our motivation for this project stems from our research findings. These findings made us realize that we all need to change the way we treat others in small ways every day, irrespective of which community we live in. Understanding the role of colonization and institutionalized racism, has also helped us realize that we need a space for healing within the community where we can honour our lost women and girls, as well as our family members who went to residential and Indian day schools. These spaces can help us reflect on the impact of these experiences on families, friends, and the community as a whole.

7 SACRED TEACHINGS

LOVE – KESALTIMKEWEY – EAGLE
HONESTY – KETLEWEYWAQN – SASQUATCH
RESPECT – KEPMITE’TAQN – BUFFALO
TRUTH – TELIAQEWE’L – TURTLE
COURAGE – MLKINO’TI – BEAR
WISDOM – NS+TUO’QN – BEAVER
HUMILITY – PENOQE’K – WOLF

7 rocks within the garden have been painted with each one of the teachings, the style being inspired by Mi’kmaw pteroglyphs that have been carved on rocks. Each teaching is associated with an animal, and encourages connections between people and the earth.

MEDICINE WHEEL

WHITE
White is the colour reserved for Elders, but they share it with children under the age of seven. It is the colour of the North.

BLACK
Black is for the west, representing our spiritual world

YELLOW
Yellow is the colour of the South, where the warmth comes from. It brings renewal within the cycle

RED
Red is for the East, where the sun rises and brings a new dawn each day

The medicine wheel reminds us of a healthy life by balancing the mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical.

THE LABYRINTH

Our labyrinth, like a traditional labyrinth, has seven circuits (reflecting the Seven Sacred Teachings). At the centre is a red smudge bowl with a sweet grass braid imprint. Finally, the labyrunth will bear the names of Mi’kmaw Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The red colour used for the labyrinth and throughout the garden is in reference to the REDress project, where empty red dresses highlight the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls throughout Canada. We are very grateful to Shaw bricks for generously donating all the bricks used to create the labyrinth.

Serious Transformations....

Preparing a space for the seven sacred teachings

Never underestimate what a group of youth can do!

Salvaging plants from the old crisis centre

Walking with the Seven Sacred Teachings

Prayer from Elder Clark Paul

Teachings from Elders and the Earth

The garden is home to a number of important healing plants, which can be used by the community

SWEETGRASS

A sacred plant that is used to bring positive energies in prayer, and helps keep negativity away. It is common to braid sweetgrass, and represents the hair of the earth.

SAGE

Sage is common for smudging ceremonies. It’s protective nature helps ward away harmful spirits. It has stronger qualities than sweetgrass, and helps to attract pollinators.

CEDAR

Cedar (and Juniper) also have purifying qualities, but is often used in tea, baths, and often covers the floor of sweat lodges. It’s form represents resilience.

In the garden milkweed, columbine, and various food producing plants can be found.

Elder Clark Paul teaching the team about sweetgrass

News and Updates

August 17, 2020 – Youtube Slideshow from ACCESS Open Minds

July 31, 2020 – Article from the Chronicle Herald

June, 2020 – Garden Project Begins Construction!

Iga'taqu'tieg - We are planting

CEREMONY SPACE

HEALING MEANDERING ROUTE

MEMORIAL SITE