The Elder's Garden began in 2022 with an initial planting of strawberries and tobacco seeds outside of Engineering 7. The Sky Garden (named Ononhse Tiakonke by Elder Bill) on the fourth floor of Engineering 5 opened in the Fall of 2023 and is available for anyone to access during daylight hour.
Elder William Woodworth holding tobacco leaves from the first harvest.
The white pine was the tree chosen by the Peacemaker as a symbol of the unity of the nations of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. Its needles, which always grow in clusters of five, are symbolic of the uniting of the nations. The white pine also has broad branches that can provide shelter and it is beneath the tree that the Peacemaker asked the Chiefs to join him. For more information, please visit the Haudenosaunee Confederacy website. In May 2023, three white pine trees were planted in the main bed and are surrounded by tobacco, strawberry and sage plants.
Many First Nations peoples have been using sacred tobacco for thousands of years as part of ceremony for healing and purifying. It is grown and dried and so has no additives. First Nations elders teach that tobacco was one of the four sacred medicines (tobacco, cedar, sage and sweetgrass), which was given by the Creator to the first peoples of this land. To read further about traditional tobacco purposes, visit the Indigenous Tobacco Program website.
When an Elder or Knowledge Keeper is invited to share their teachings, it is customary to gift them a tobacco tie with homegrown tobacco. If you would like more information about tobacco and the protocol surrounding offering it, please contact eng.edi@uwaterloo.ca
Strawberries also grow in the main planter. For the Haudenosaunee, the juicy red berry is culturally significant. According to the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, Skywoman brought strawberries with her as she fell from Sky World onto the back of the turtle. When Muskrat delivered to her that tiny clump of earth in his paw, she planted the seeds she carried. And when she died and was buried, they say, strawberries and medicines sprung up from the ground above her feet. For more information, visit this article on the Two Row Times website.
Cedar is one of the four sacred medicines used in everyday life and ceremonies of Haudenosaunee people. A cedar tree donated by a faculty member can also be found in the second planter. Sweetgrass also grows in the planter beside the cedar; it is braided, harvested and dried at certain times of the year and used in ceremony.