Grande Prairie Friendship Centre breaks ground on new traditional healing garden

The Grande Prairie Friendship Centre celebrated the groundbreaking of their much-awaited traditional healing garden on National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The garden is being funded through the Commemorating the History & Legacy of Residential Schools fund and the Community Foundation of Northwestern Alberta’s community impact grant.

The construction of the garden comes not long after the news that the remains of 215 children were discovered buried on the grounds of a residential school in Kamloops, as well as confirmation of more unmarked gravesites at residential schools in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Given the recent news regarding residential schools, Angie Crerar, a long-time member of the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre, says this new garden will give Indigenous community members a place to move forward.

“This garden to me is starting our healing journey because we will all be here,” said Crerar.

“We’ll share our stories, but the garden is the giver of life and we are going to get our medicines and help each other. We’ve got a place to go to respect and honour the ones that are gone, the ones that are still alive and especially the generations of children who have suffered this trauma of residential school.”

Jordan Wuttunee is a member of the Board of Directors at the Friendship Centre and is a member of the committee for the garden. He says the creation of the garden is an exciting day for members of the Indigenous community.

“It’s exciting that we get to get things moving because we’ve been planning this for a while. It’s good to have the community come out and support this and we are looking forward to the garden that’s to come and all the good community things that will come from it.”

Once complete, the garden will house programs alongside commemorative events to revitalize traditional knowledge systems, provide skill-building, and host community healing events, to create a small path forward in the community towards reconciliation and healing.

For this summer, members of the Friendship Centre will cut up concrete space on the west side of the building and begin to lay down dirt for the garden.

By the spring of 2022, it is hoped that the garden is ready for use and open to the public.

The Friendship Centre says it is still looking for cash donations so it can purchase plants next year and also volunteers, especially when planting starts.