Land Back Camp finds new community food garden space at Schneider Haus

Food grown at a new Indigenous community garden space in Kitchener will support those living with food insecurity as part of a partnership between Land Back Camp and the region's Schneider Haus.

This is the group's fourth community garden, which they have named The Tionnhéhkwen Garden, or Sustenance Garden.

"It just made sense, we're on the Haldimand Tract and we're with more Mohawk people, so [it has] a Haudenosaunee language name," said Amy Smoke, one of the founders of Land Back Camp.

"Renaming and place making is important to Indigenous people. It's more poetic and beautiful in explaining what our relationship is not only to mother earth, but to the community as well."

Throughout the summer, the group will grow a wide variety of different foods like lettuce, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and berries, as well as different herbs like basil, thyme, oregano and mint. 

Different sections of the garden have flowers growing as well, and across from the entrance, a large plot is dedicated to the Three Sisters foods: Squash, corn and beans.

"The reason why [the plot] it's mounded is that they sort of protect each other," said Olivia Maine, a member of the group that is overseeing the garden.

"The squash around the edge, which will keep critters out and then we have the corn in the centre which will support the beans when they grow up."

All the food grown at the Tionnhéhkwen Garden will go to support the local Indigenous community and the Community Fridge KW at the Kitchener Market, Maine said.

"Some of us will be canning and drying all these types of things to share with community and then any of the fresh produce will go to the fridges so the rest of the community can benefit," they said.

'We need to be those plants that work together'

The location of the new garden is also ideal and accessible for the Land Back Camp youth and community, said Bangishimo Johnston, one of the founders of the group.

"We were up by Bridgeport Plaza last year in a beautiful space, but it was too far away for us because most of us live downtown," Johnston said. 

Johnston added many people stopped by as the group was preparing the garden on Saturday to drop off all kinds of seeds. Johnston and Smoke say they hope the garden helps in their efforts to support the community and normalize Indigenous people working on the land.

Maine says the garden is a symbol of how community should support one another.

"We need to be those plants that work together to shade and protect and cultivate the soil the same way a garden would," Maine said.

"We're all unique, we're all different, we all provide different things, but we can grow together in a beautiful and sustainable way."