Article: Chicago Sun-Times, 2019
FIRST NATIONS GARDEN
Subject: First Nations Garden
Article: Community garden in Albany Park aims to protect environment, indigenous culture
Publication: Chicago Sun-Times
Author: Nirmal Mulaikal
Location: Chicago, IL (Albany Park)
Date: 5/24/2019
ARTICLE
“Every Sunday for the past month, Native American Chicagoans and Albany Park residents have gathered across the street from the 17th District police station to work on their community garden.
The First Nations Garden currently includes a traditional garden for the community’s use. Part of the space — a prairie and soil restoration project and land specifically used for indigenous practices and traditions — remains in development.
Eventually the space that is yet to be developed will be used to conduct religious ceremonies and powwows, teach environmental education, grow traditional medicines and share stories under a massive 20-foot tipi.” – Community garden in Albany Park aims to protect environment, indigenous culture, Chicago Sun-Times.
INFO
First Nations Garden (Wiinso, Wiikonge Otishinikaaso) was established in the Spring of 2019 due to community organizing led by the Chi-Nations Youth Council with support from Alderman Carlos Rosa of the 35th Ward. Currently, Chi-Nations is working closely with Neighborspace to ensure a more sustainable future for the garden.
First Nations Garden was chosen as the English name of the space. The term First Nations is a collective noun that emphasizes the importance of direct and ancestral relationships to the land, both human and non-human. As First Nations peoples, we’ve chosen names that carry the garden site’s history and ancestral ecological knowledge and assist in helping provide navigational information and teachings to the greater public.
