The Three Sister’s Garden, established in the 2015-16 year, is a commitment to acknowledge the land as Indigenous, promote Indigenous agricultural knowledge and provide students and staff alike a unique experiential learning experience that connects community and learning.
This year, the Peace Centre will continue working on the Three Sister’s Garden in partnership with the First Peoples’ Centre as well as Sustainable Dawson. An indigenous medicinal plant garden will be added this year. The medicinal garden will be designed by the Journey’s students, guided by a Mohawk Elder, and then planted in May. The harvest of the Three Sister’s Garden will be donated to the First Peoples’ Centre and Financial Aid Food Bank. The herbs & plants from the medicinal herb garden will be given to the First Peoples’ Centre to use for ceremony or gifts for visiting elders and speakers. It can also serve as a future teaching tool in a curricular context.
Students from the Journey’s program participated in two sessions this semester to learn about and plant a medicinal herb garden based on the guided expertise of an Elder, Gary Beauvais.Approx. 25 students took part in these two sessions, along with an additional 5 faculty & staff members.In addition, student volunteers ( approx.. 10) over the course of the summer are working in the Three Sisters Garden to ensure that the 3 sisters’s beds are maintained as well as the newly planted medicinal herb garden.The feedback from the faculty member teaching the Journey’s students was very positive. For the most part the students enjoyed spending time away from the classroom and doing something outdoors. They very much enjoyed working with and learning from Gary.In the Fall the Three Sisters Garden will be a part of the Peace Week biodiversity tours, where we can introduce more people to the garden as well the newly planted medicinal garden. In addition, it will be one of the gardens that will be a part of the yearly Urban Restoration project as a part of Peace Week, I anticipate to have at least +150 students in that garden over the course of Peace Week. In addition, when it comes to harvest time & the closing of the garden for the season we will invite the Journey’s students from next year’s cohort as well as previous students who had been involved to come and join us.
