Interfaith Foodbank celebrating Indigenous culture with garden

By Lethbridge Herald on June 15, 2023.

Photo submitted by Interfaith Foodbank Indigenous Elders perfoming a ceremony last year at the Interfaith Foodbank Healing Garden.

Justin Sibbet
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

For centuries the Indigenous population in southern Alberta has grown and foraged a variety of plants, herbs, fruits and vegetables and now the Interfaith Foodbank hopes to return to these historic roots.

Last year, the Interfaith Foodbank opened a new Indigenous garden to share with the community and educate people on the cultural influence of the Blackfoot and Piikani nations.

The garden, Ih’taapiinii’mopa inn’siimaan (Healing Garden), is full of a variety of plants native to this region and known to have been used by the Indigenous people.

Danielle McIntyre, executive director of the foodbank, says this will create an opportunity for people to learn about the plants and the culture simultaneously in a casual environment.

“People can just come, they can self tour the garden with QR codes on our plants,” said McIntyre.

The QR codes mentioned will be placed at each plant and, when scanned, will provide visitors with information about the plant and how it was traditionally used by the Indigenous people.

Furthermore, it will have a pronunciation of the Indigenous name of the plant available.

McIntyre says the foodbank will also be setting up a tent with stones that can be written on by visitors to commemorate family members who have passed away.

“They’re memorial stones, memory stones,” said McIntyre. “Last year, when we had the garden ceremony, we invited people to leave stones in the garden to recognise those lost from Indigenous residential schools.”

She says the sharing of this garden, along with the educational purposes it provides, will make the reconciliation efforts more effective for visitors.

“The more people learn about the culture and understand and appreciate the culture, the easier it is to actually reconcile,” said McIntyre.

This healing garden makes up about one third of the garden space used by the Interfaith Foodbank.

The remaining space provides unique educational purposes for visitors to learn about growing different types of plants in their backyards. 

McIntyre says this is important because if people can grow their own plants, they will have a sustainable food source during the summer months.

“Everything that we do is supposed to empower people, not enable them,” said McIntyre. “We don’t want to grow all the carrots and just give you carrots. We want you to learn how to grow your carrots and grow them for yourself.”

While the foodbank garden is not a community garden, the food grown is used directly in their kitchens.

Furthermore, McIntyre says several methods of growing taught by the foodbank are easily replicated at home even when a conventional garden is impossible.

“We’ve got a tire and we started growing watermelons in it,” said McIntyre.

She says they also have a space in the garden called the “found objects garden,” where everything is grown in unconventional, yet accessible ways.

“Most of our families don’t live in places where they build raised beds … or dig into the ground,” said McIntyre. “So, we teach them if it will hold soil, you can grow food in it.”

On June 21, the foodbank will be hosting a self guided tour of the healing garden from 12:00 to 3:00p.m. 

McIntyre says all are welcome to attend and learn about the heritage of the community and the Indigenous ways of gardening.