Montreal-area school blends Indigenous culture and environmental restoration in new green space

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/john-abbott-college-microforest-1.7330023

A school in Montreal's West Island has inaugurated a green space dedicated to environmental restoration and the celebration of Indigenous culture. 

John Abbott College, an English-language CEGEP located in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., is calling the space Kahnikonri:io - Good Mind Garden and Microforest.

The space is expected to become a unique place for learning, reflection and connection with nature, according to a news release. The space blends Indigenous knowledge and ecological sustainability.

The project is aimed at fostering sustainability, community and education through nature.

The space will also have tobacco burning ceremonies every Monday. The school's dean of Indigenous education said it's a step toward reconciliation.

"It means a lot. Some of my own personal tobacco plants are planted here in the garden," said Kim Tekakwitha Martin.

Thinking back to the 80s, she remembers attending John Abbott College, and visiting on a tour for the first time. 

"If I would have came here back then and the bus pulled up and I saw this, I would have immediately felt like, wow, this is going to be awesome," she said. "Like I'm home or there's something here I can relate to."

Chris Lévesque, who teaches biology at the college, came up with the idea of building a microforest which, he said, is a small forest that is constructed very densely. 

"We have 600 trees here in a fairly small area," he said. "They're removing greenhouse gases really fast, at a very high rate. Then they attract insects and birds and other animals. So we're really increasing biodiversity on campus by having this microforest here."

The area will be protected by a fence for the first two years, but once it is removed, it will look even better, he said. Already, a lot of insects and small animals have been visiting despite the fence, he noted.

He said next year, the school will begin measuring the amount of greenhouse gases being removed from the air by the microforest. 

In four to five years, the forest will be growing and flourishing, said Tekakwitha Martin. And another five years after that, the small, tree-dense patch of campus will clearly be a forest, said Lévesque.

"And then it's an ongoing process," he said. "It's a long-term process. Those trees will live for several decades."

In the next eight to nine decades, he said, the trees will remove several tonnes of greenhouse gasses, he said.

On its website, the college says it is on unceded Indigenous lands of the traditional territory of both the Kanien'kehá:ka and the Anishinabeg  peoples.

"Together, as a diverse college community, we commit to building a sincere relationship with Indigenous peoples based on respect, dignity, trust and cooperation, in the process of advancing truth and reconciliation," it says.