“You can't just take a piece of land from the university and build a garden on it”: Exploring Indigenizing space and place in a settler Canadian university context

Abstract

Since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Indigenization efforts at Canadian Universities have grown markedly. There have been cluster hires, curriculum overhaul, and the creation of Indigenous spaces. Despite this important shift, the meanings and tensions associated with these efforts have not been well documented in research. Drawing from a case study of the Indigenous Food and Medicine Garden at Western University (London, Ontario, Canada), and framed within the concept of environmental repossession, this paper describes local meaning of the Garden, as shared by Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, faculty and staff members who have been involved with the Garden since its inception in 2014. Our findings reveal that while the Garden provides a vitally important space for the Indigenous community at Western to practice, share and strengthen their Indigenous Knowledges, the broader structure of the university environment both challenges the Garden's sustainability and limits its potential usage and growth. Similar to what we are seeing in other university environments, the reconciliatory impact of Indigenization projects, such as Gardens, relies heavily on the strength of relationship between Indigenous people and the University Administration, and also on the ability of Indigenous people to be self-determining in these spaces.