Trent University’s Oshawa campus adds Tipi and Medicine Garden to its Indigenous spaces

A Tipi and Medicine Garden is the latest addition to the traditional Indigenous spaces at Trent Durham GTA’s Oshawa campus.

The Medicine Garden, located behind Trent Durham’s Building A, features new garden beds for traditional medicines that will be used in First Peoples House of Learning events and a Healing Pathway that will be a place of reflection and cultural connection for students, staff, faculty, and the community. The new 30-foot Tipi – an important cultural space for Indigenous peoples – will host events like Sacred Fires, Social Fires, and Full-Moon Ceremonies.

“The Tipi provides Indigenous students with a space to gather, learn, and engage in ceremonies, and we often invite members of the greater Trent community to participate in the space and learn with us,” said Samantha Krizel, a fourth-year English Literature student who worked as FPHL’s summer ambassador at the Trent Durham campus.

Jenifer Richardson, director of Student Affairs at Trent Durham GTA, said the space is somewhere where Indigenous students can connect meaningfully in a culturally safe environment and where all students can have the opportunity to learn about Indigenous culture and history. “As a campus community, we are grateful for the land, the opportunity to build connections, and the chance to learn from one another.”

Sewn Home owner David Lundberg delivered the Tipi’s handcrafted canvas and harvested logs and demonstrated how to tie the lodge poles together to raise the Tipi. Trent Durham staff and students then collectively constructed the Tipi, tying clove hitches and knots, raising additional lodge poles, and unravelling and staking down the canvas.

Corten steel sculptures by artist André Fournelle frame the Healing Pathway. Donated by Michel Constantin, the art installation Arcade: A Passage Crossing includes five archways with English, French, and Anishnaabemowin words etched into them.

A financial gift from former Trent board chair Anne Wright supported the new on-campus Tipi. Wright says she was inspired to support Indigenous spaces to continue Trent’s leadership in Indigenous education.

“I do feel that Indigenous programming is incredibly meaningful as it fulfils a huge need in this country of better understanding our history and addressing historical wrongs,” Wright said at the time of announcing the gift. “Trent University is at the forefront of Indigenous Studies and I’m so proud to be a part of that.”