Ontario Construction News staff writer
Wellington Place has applied for a $250,000 grant to create a sacred garden – the region’ first dedicated Indigenous space for ceremony and programming.
The grant program supports projects that transform public spaces in response to COVID-19.
If successful, the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative grant would allow the organization to establish community space at the county-owned lands behind the Wellington County Museum and Archives (WCMA).
The plan includes a medicine wheel, a three sisters garden, a ceremony space and a and multi-use timber frame 40’ by 60’ pavilion on the flat grounds, with the intention of tying the space to the Commons area with walking trails. Additional projects outside the scope of the grant include two stall, gender neutral public washroom, a natural playground and an amphitheatre.
“We would engage the public and a landscape architect to develop our public space and incorporate the other multi-year items we see as crucial, but outside the scope of this grant. These items are a two stall, gender neutral public washroom, a natural playground and an amphitheatre,” Jana Burns,Wellington Place administrator wrote in a report to the heritage and seniors committe.
The grant is the first step in the process of getting this off the ground. Burns said the next step is to engage with Indigenous groups and the public on this project. A sacred garden would include themes of reconciliation with its proximity to the WCMA.
The WCMA was historically used as a place of refuge for impoverished, homeless or destitute people and called the “Poor House” which supports vulnerable residents with space for ceremony and healing.
While the grant would expedite the project, the County’s heritage and seniors committee voted recently to proceed with or without funding.
It is anticipated that the garden will be completed by summer 2022.