Media Release: Healing Garden in a Canoe to be Planted at Kimbourne Park United Church

United Church planting a canoe with the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation on Monday in the spirit of reconciliation 

For Immediate Release 

This Monday, members of Kimbourne Park United Church, ambassadors from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, NDP MP Matthew Kellway, and volunteers from the David Suzuki Foundation’s Homegrown National Park Project will plant a bright teal flower filled canoe garden. This garden in a canoe is a gesture towards reconciliation after the suffering endured by members of the New Credit band at the United Church administered Mount Elgin Industrial Institute. It acknowledges the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and includes artist Phil Coté’s Anishinabe “Moccasin Identifier”, along with several varieties of indigenous medicinal plants that also benefit pollinators. While this will be the first canoe garden planting that responds directly to the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report on residential schools, community canoe gardens like this one have also taken root at Waterdown’s Souharissen Natural Area, inBrampton, as well as in Toronto’s West End. This planting will be the region’s 22nd.

A recent canoe installation in Mississauga—Photo courtesy of
Homegrown National Park Rangers

Toronto resident and Homegrown National Park Ranger Aidan Dahlin Nolan, along with a growing cast of volunteers and collaborators, has been leading the effort to establish a network of flower-filled canoe gardens in city parks, green spaces and schoolyards —the network now stretches from the New Credit Reserve near Brantford to Pickering, and the canoes are colour-coded by watershed. Suggesting that “the playful interaction betweenCoté’s Anishinabe Moccasin Identifier and the canoe can engage us in the process of reconciliation by reminding us of the importance of the land and water we all share”, Aidan hopes that other communities of faith will join the project.

WHO: Park Ranger Aidan Dahlin Nolan, members of Kimbourne Park United Church, representatives from the David Suzuki Foundation and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, and MP Matthew Kellway.

WHAT: Planting a Canoe Garden at Kimbourne Park United Church in the spirit of reconciliation.

WHERE: 200 Wolverleigh Blvd, Toronto, ON

WHEN: Monday June 29th, 10am-12pm

CONTACT: Aidan Dahlin Nolan, 647-204-7779, communitycanoe@gmail.com

—Media release via the David Suzuki Foundation