This Indigenous spirit garden goes beyond supporting families in need. It's also growing relationships

Volunteers with Anishnabeg Outreach were busy this week harvesting food and medicine grown over summer at the organization's spirit garden.

The garden began as partnership with downtown Kitchener's St. Mary's Catholic Church in the spring. It's located on Spitzig Road, beside Woodland Christian High School in Breslau.

An array of food like tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, peppers, squash and pumpkins were planted throughout the four hectare garden.

Near the back of the garden, where it meets the edge of the forest, traditional medicines like sweet grass, sage and tobacco were also grown.

"This is probably the most important part of the garden. This is the part that I view as sacred," Stephen Jackson, CEO of Anishnabeg Outreach, said as he gave a tour of the site.

Special crops grown at the garden were tobacco and squash share a deep connection with the region's history. Jackson said the seeds were propagated and once grown by Indigenous communities in the area hundreds of years ago.

"The tobacco strain that we have are actually from 1,000 year old tobacco. I was gifted by the [Ken Seiling Region of Waterloo Museum], who started the propagation," he said.

"They came in a pitched sealed jar dug up in an archeological site and they propagated a few seeds. That worked and now that's being spread through the region. It's amazing, tobacco from hundreds of years ago."

Seeds for squash, dubbed "the ancient squash," were also propagated by the museum. This particular squash was a food staple for Indigenous peoples, Jackson said.

"When we planted them, we didn't know if they were going to grow or not because of weather conditions and all the rest," he said.

To their surprise, dozens of ancient squash grew and now the group has seeds for next year's crop.

The garden is sometimes referred to as the reconciliation garden. For Jackson, reconciliation means growing relationships and partnerships with the broader community. 

"The garden wasn't about making money or food," he said.

"It was about bringing people together. It was about giving large organizations like RBC, Neighbourhood Group Of Companies, the Catholic churches and other churches an opportunity to do something differently. An opportunity to participate in reconciliation"