Manotick, ON Established in 2018 The Misiwe Ni Relations Healing Lodge in Manotick, Ontario brings people together for the purpose of healing and harmony and to remind us that we are all interconnected. The lodge offers a treatment program for Indigenous foster youth that uses land-based healing, including medicine walks and traditional ceremonies. The lodge established a Healing Forest in 2018, dedicated as a place to find solace and comfort for residential school survivors. A heart garden was created in ceremony with local elders, children, and community members. It contains 150 stones in a heart-shaped garden that honours the 150,000 children who attended residential schools.

Ottawa, ON Established in 2019 In the summer of 2019, the All Saint’s Sunday School program sparked the dream of establishing a Healing Forest on Richmond Road in Ottawa’s Westboro community. The children met on the property of All Saints’ Anglican Church and designed their Healing Forest. Together with community members and parents and staff from All Saints and First United Church, the dream became a reality. That fall, a one-tonne ‘Grandmother Rock’ was added, plus a pathway and descriptive signage. In October 2018, the congregations of All Saints’ and First United gathered and welcomed Grandmother Francine, who explained the meaning of the smudging and drumming ceremony and expressed her hope that this small Healing Forest would be a benefit to the community at large.

Ajax Pickering Hospital, Ajax, Ontario Established in 2022 In 2022, the Ajax Pickering Hospital created an Indigenous Community & Healing Garden on its site, including native trees and shrubs, a wildflower meadow and circular raised-bed vegetable garden. The donor-funded garden is run by the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation and community volunteers and will provide a tranquil space for patients, visitors and staff to relax and heal. Partners: Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation, Lakeridge Health, Ajax Mayor’s Gala, Miinikaan Innovation & Design, local Elder, We Grow Foods.

Mindemoya, Ontario Established 2023 Central Manitoulin Public School is situated in the heart of Manitoulin Island. Manitoulin is the world’s largest freshwater island located in Lake Huron, Ontario. Central Manitoulin Public School is situated on the traditional lands of the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations and has the pleasure to learn from neighbouring Indigenous communities to help build upon the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. A Wellness Orchard has been created on the school grounds for everyone to enjoy as part of the National Healing Forest Initiative. Students, families, daycare and community members have the opportunity to walk along cedar lined paths, sit on limestone boulders, participate in teachings about the medicine wheel, learn about the 7 Grandfather teachings, eat fresh produce from the garden and plants, or enjoy the flowers. Over 200 fruit trees have been planted along with 8 garden boxes that are used to grow produce to feed our community. This wonderful green space has provided a safe place for all to use, reflect, grow and heal, while connecting with Mother Earth.

Waterloo, Ontario Established in 2024 The University of Waterloo Healing Forest is comprised of two parcels of land. One parcel is the University of Waterloo Urban Forest. This 5-hectare forest is the campus' largest remaining wooded green space. It encompasses a creek bed, marshy floodplains, and a moist forest with white oak and black cherry trees. The second parcel is a section of the University of Waterloo Environmental Reserve. In total, the reserve is just over 44 hectares and houses forests, meadows, and Columbia Lake. It has long been a place for teaching, research, and conservation. The designation of both parcels of land as a Healing Forest aligns with the University's commitments to decolonization, Indigenization and reconciliation that are grounded in the University's 2023-2028 Indigenous Strategic Plan. In 2024, the University hosted an exhibit profiling the Healing Forest. Check it out here: https://uwaterloo.ca/healing-forest/healing-forest-exhibit For more information about the Healing Forest, visit: https://uwaterloo.ca/healing-forest

M’Chigeeng, Ontario Proposed in 2022 The kinoo wiiya minoyaa (place where everyone becomes well in mind and spirit) Healing Forest is proposed for the schoolyard of Manitoulin Secondary School, which has 40 per cent Indigenous students. Partners: Manitoulin Secondary School, MSS Ecoschool Team, M’Chigeeng First Nation, local companies

Prince Edward County, Ontario Proposed in 2022 The proposed Waupoos Healing Forest will be located in a private forest within the traditional territory of the Tyendinaga Mohawk (Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte). A local company and local groups are aiming to create a trail and garden with native plants, trees and shrubs. Partners: Marcatus QED, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte

Perth, ON Established in 2018 The Perth Healing Forest was established on September 30, 2018. Located in Last Duel Park in Perth, Ontario, it includes a memorial rock installation dedicated to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. A National Healing Forest display panel includes text written in Anishinabemowin and English. A healing circle was added in 2022. Each year, hundreds of community members gather for ceremonies and events, including National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Toronto, ON Estabished in 2021 Stewarded by members of the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Group at St. Matthew’s United Church in Toronto, the Noojimo’iwewin Gitigaan Healing Forest is a small green space, home to dozens of species of native plants. Both the land and the water are acknowledged in signage that situates the garden between the “lost rivers” of Taddle and Garrison Creeks, and identifies the four sacred medicines – tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, and cedar – that grow there. A core group of 20 community members steward the urban greenspace. The Healing Forest’s name was given by Elder Peduhbun Migizi Kwe/Catherine Brooks (Nipissing FN), who had heard about the All Saints Healing Forest project in Ottawa and encouraged the IPSG to join the National Healing Forests Initiative. The site includes a winding commemorative pathway and moon-shaped rain gardens designed by Anishinaabe artist Bert Whitecrow and gardener Olivia Dziwak.

Farabout Peninsula, Ontario Established in 2022 In 2022, Eagle Lake Farabout Peninsula Coalition in partnership with the Eagle Lake First Nation received the “Healing Forest” designation. A ceremony was held at our meeting site during which the 1084 hectare peninsula was declared a “Healing Forest”. Over the summer of 2023 we posted Healing Forest and conservation signage in and around our Healing Forest meeting place to promote awareness of the Healing Forest and conservation issues. This submission for your website also includes a photo of a memorial bench installed at our Healing Forest Site commemorating long-term Coalition members who have died. These members were a strong source of support for the Coalition for well over a decade. They are sorely missed. Although our efforts last summer focused on site development (as opposed to a meeting or ceremony), we were surprised to note through our visitors book that more than 60 people ventured by water to visit our site. Aside from local folks, visitors came from both coasts of Canada, a number of American states and as far away as Mexico and Sri Lanka. Comments in our visitors’ book were overwhelmingly positive. Our designation as a Healing Forest appears to be creating a draw to our meeting site and the unique importance of Farabout Peninsula. We feel there is much to be learned and absorbed at this site. Further information about the efforts of the Coalition and Eagle Lake First Nation to protect Farabout Peninsula can be found at: www.savefarabout.org

Northlea United Church, Toronto, Ontario Established in 2023 In 2023, Northlea reached an important milestone. On June 17, an outdoor Ceremony of Dedication was held and Northlea officially became part of the National Healing Forests Initiative. Our pine tree forest, with its Pine Gallery – where we’ve learned about Orange Shirt Day and “Every Child Matters”, the Sixties Scoop, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the Doctrine of Discovery – was dedicated as “a place for healing, learning, sharing, and reflection about Canada’s history and the legacy of Indian residential schools.” Social and environmental justice advocate and founder of Msit No’kmaq, Carolynne Crawley accompanied us on this journey. In the early spring in two webinars, she shared Indigenous knowledge and stories; and on June 17th, she explained and led a smudging ceremony and shared Indigenous wisdom about gifts from the earth including from pine trees and other forest beings. A National Healing Forests plaque has been mounted beside the church walkway, under the pines, on an old pine tree stump – a reminder of the ongoing need to nurture the land and its trees as they age and experience extreme weather. In acknowledging the land that our church is built on, its towering pine trees and our responsibility for them, our pine forest has become a place for learning and reflection. We invite everyone who uses our church and everyone passing by it to linger in our Healing Forest, to connect and experience the earth in “the spirit of reconciliation, healing, shared understanding and respect.” May the Northlea Healing Forest help us all rekindle love and respect for one another and for nature.

Gloucester, Ontario Established in 2024 The Birch Path Healing Forest is located on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin peoples. Aanii. Boozhoo. Biindigen Noojimowin Wiigwas Miikaans Gtiganing maanpii Algonquin, Anishinaabeg endaawad, miinwa edaakiimwaan, gaawiin wiikaa gii miigwensiinaawaan odaakiimwaan. It is a dedicated space for healing, learning, sharing, and reflecting about Canada’s history and the legacy of Indian residential schools. Maandaa gitigan miikaans dibendaagood wii minooyaan, enji-kendaamong bimaadizowin, miingiwin, kenjgiwin miinwa gaabi zhiwebag chi-kinomaagigamgoon binoojiyag gii chi-miigachgaswaad. Mii dash maandaa nindaa miikaansan enji-temgaag. Native plants, such as birch, are essential for the lives of Anishinaabe Nations as food sources, medicine, and as teachers. Anishinaabeg nisdowaamdanawaan badakideg mishkiki miinwa miijim giigaakwa, wiigwas ge ababidek eda wii naakaasnawaan Nishinaabeg miinwa akinomagewaad. Everyone is welcome here. You are invited to cultivate an intention and take responsibility for how you interact with this place and the beings here. Here we connect with the spirit of reconciliation, which involves care and respect for all beings. Kina wiiyaa maanpii da bizhaawag maano eda minoyaawag. G’da wiikmigoom dash weweni ji daabnaamaan miinwa ji zhaayaayaan maanpii eyaagig-minidook. Kaa mino daapnaag maanpii e yaajig. Listen to a radio interview about the Birch Path Healing Forest here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-98-in-town-and-out/clip/16096192-birch-path-healing-forest

Navan, Ontario Proposed in 2022 The Navan Community is proposing a Healing Forest be established in Navan, near Ottawa, Ontario. It will serve as a space to contemplate, meditate and educate about the history of residential schools, honour the victims and celebrate survivors, as well as to bring some light to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls. A place to pay respect by planting a seed to reconciliation and respect all relations. Partners: Women's Institute of Navan, Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB), and various community groups.