The dedicated green space will serve many purposes, including actively fostering engagement and reconciliation with Indigenous community members.

From the hollow of an abalone shell, sweet-smelling smoke curls skyward from smoldering sage, tobacco, cedar, and sweetgrass – four sacred medicines in Indigenous healing ceremonies. An Algonquin Elder gently brushes the braiding smoke with her hands and offers it to the four directions in a spiritually cleansing practice known as smudging.

“It’s very important (to understand) when you’re highly stressed that you need this. You need the garden,” says Annie Smith St-Georges, a prominent Elder and traditional healer who was raised on the Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg reserve near Maniwaki, Quebec, and has helped guide the Faculty of Medicine’s Indigenous Program since its beginnings.

Now, with the gift of various traditional medicines from the home garden she cultivates with her Métis husband, Robert, an Indigenous Garden is opening on the campus of the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine. Fittingly, the St-Georges will be on hand to dedicate this purpose-built garden during this year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.