K-12, postsecondary institutions announce new gathering spaces, centres, gardens

Five schools and postsecondary institutions across Canada have announced new Indigenous centres and outdoor learning spaces. Bishop’s University announced that it would be breaking ground on the new Kwigw8mna centre this summer. The name means “our (and everyone’s) house,” and the centre will include spaces for Indigenous students, as well as a gallery highlighting Abenaki history. Lambton College recently dedicated the site of an $8M Indigenous outdoor gathering space which will be built in a clearing on campus. In Thunder Bay, St Pius X School unveiled a new medicine garden that was collaboratively created by Grades 1, 4, 5, and 6 students in the Ojibwe language class. Oriole Park Elementary in Red Deer formally opened the Oriole Park Outdoor Learning and Indigenous Gardens, which includes a wheelchair-accessible garden box and a concrete medicine wheel. Kelowna Secondary School Indigenous Academy students planned an outdoor learning space in consultation with local Indigenous elders and have launched a fundraising campaign to make the space a reality.