“The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of [Canada’s Aboriginal] policy, which can best be described as ‘cultural genocide’…Canada separated children from their parents…not to educate them, but primarily to break their link to their culture and identity.” excerpt from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report

In 1986 the United Church of Canada apologized to Indigenous peoples for our part in the history of colonization: “We tried to make you like us and in so doing we helped destroy the vision that made you what you were. As a result, you and we are poorer and the image of the Creator in us is twisted, blurred and we are not what we are meant by God to be.” In 1998 the United Church apologized for the pain and suffering that our church’s involvement in the Indian Residential School System caused.

The call to create Heart Gardens came from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society as the TRC came to a close in 2015. “Honouring Memories, Planting Dreams” invites individuals and organizations to join in reconciliation by planting Heart Gardens in their communities.

Our Heart Garden is situated next to Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, which was completed in 1889. The building is an expression of the prestige and confidence of this Christian community in the same era in which government and church were confidently embarking on a project to end the Indigenous way of life. Christian churches played a central role in denigrating this spiritual way of being; now, with an attitude of humility, we seek to learn from it as a source of healing from our own captivity to colonialism.

“Help us to open our hearts to others, pay attention to our thoughts, words and actions, notice when we have hurt others and change our behaviour in the future. With this Heart Garden we honour the children who were lost or survived the Indian Residential School System.”

This was our prayer with the children of Trinity-St. Paul’s, Bathurst and Bloor Street United churches as we made “hearts” that were sent to the closing ceremony of the TRC in Ottawa and planted others in the developing Heart Garden on the northwest side of Trinity-St. Paul’s. Each year since, the children make and laminate hearts to plant in the garden.

The garden is in the form of a medicine wheel. Over the years we have been working with Jacqui Lavalley, an Anishinaabe elder, to guide us in planting the four sacred medicines – tobacco, sage, cedar and sweet grass.  Jacqui also leads us in Anishinaabe ceremony and teachings.

In the summer of 2019, several large boulders were unearthed during the construction of the parkette across the street from the garden – a story of the earth in this place. The city gifted us with two of them. In Indigenous culture, stones are regarded as Grandfathers, wise from their countless lifetimes; the earth remembers suffering. About the same time we found a poem by Métis author Katherena Vermette. She writes of “an other story …carved on earth, every stone a song, that echoes the erosion…another story…scrolled on wind, painted in blood, every bone sings…” Over the summer of 2020 Anishinaabe artist Solomon King did the stonework and built the wooden screens that hold the poem. In the fall of 2020 the garden was completed.

“We are here to honour our ancestors and make a place for our children.  It is the only job that matters.” Katherena Vermette

We acknowledge the generous financial support of Trinity-St Paul’s United Church, the United Church of Canada Foundation, Bloor Street United Church and individual donors which contributed to the realization of this project.

This project is supported by the My Main Street program, the Canadian Urban Institute, and the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).