Drums, shakers and garden gloves were all necessary to get a certain garden in Thorold prepared for the season.
The Thorold Indigenous Unity Garden, a project between the City of Thorold and the One Thorold Truth and Reconciliation Committee — located at Mel Swart Conservation Area — held an opening ceremony on April 13.
Michele-Elise Burnett and Natalie Blueraven, garden organizers, welcomed the volunteers who helped pull back the straw and weed the garden beds.
“Today, we are getting Mother Earth ready in this beautiful garden we started last year," said Burnett, who is the president of Indigenous consultancy company Kakekalanicks and member of the One Thorold Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
“We are going to prepare her for the growing season,” she said during the opening ceremony, adding, “I am so grateful for each of you that came out to offer your energy, your love, and your gratitude to our beautiful mother of the Earth.”
A drum circle was then formed and several songs were sung. Cedar tea was offered to everyone and there was a smudging ceremony with sage.
The garden is designed in the shape of a turtle and includes hand-chiseled rocks marking the different parts of the turtle. It was inspired by similar gardens Burnett visited and is intended as a move towards the Truth and Reconciliation's 94 calls to action.
Blueraven, a horticulturist who studied Indigenous native plants explained how the head of the turtle contained the medicine garden. It includes tobacco for the eastern door, sweetgrass for the south door, sage for the west and cedar for the north.
“This is based on our medicine wheel teachings,” said Blueraven.
In the belly of the turtle there is wildflowers and sunflowers. Some of the sunflower stocks remained from last year because they house native insects, she added. The tail of the turtle has wild strawberries.
Blueraven said the location of the garden was “very special, noting the plants in the garden grew “incredibly” last year.
“It was like the plants were on steroids,” she joked.
Wildflowers can take up to three years to fully establish themselves, but the flowers “went to their full last year.”
“There is something very magical about the lands,” added Blueraven.
Erin Dumo said she came to the opening because Burnett is a friend of hers and she tries to support the work she does in the community.
“This is an amazing place,” Dumo told ThoroldToday. “It's traditional grounds. It's next to the water. It brings peace and quietness and calm and having the medicines growing around — it is so sacred."
Fred Neale, chair of the One Thorold Truth and Reconciliation Committee and former Thorold City Councillor, said he was inspired to form the One Thorold committee after witnessing the use of a ground-penetrating radar at the site of a former residential school in Brantford.
This summer, the committee plans to hold evening programs such as medicine wheel teachings, meditation, and song and drum circles at the garden. They're currently seeking sponsors to help offset some of the program costs.
Burnett explained that it was “a great way to partner up with an Indigenous Entity here and to help move those 94 calls to action.”
