news.library.ualberta.ca
  • HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • Five Things You Need to Know About the Library
    • Cinq choses à savoir sur la bibliothèque
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
    • Cinq choses à savoir sur la bibliothèque
news.library.ualberta.ca
  • HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • Five Things You Need to Know About the Library
    • Cinq choses à savoir sur la bibliothèque
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
    • Cinq choses à savoir sur la bibliothèque
CommunityWellness

The Indigenous Medicine Garden of Cameron Library: Maintaining knowledge through plants

by Guest Author August 12, 2025
written by Guest Author August 12, 2025
0 comment
3
FacebookLinkedinRedditWhatsappEmail

When we think of libraries, we often see them as caretakers of knowledge which resides on pages, shelves, and in databases exclusively. However, for the members of the University of Alberta Library’s Indigenous Initiatives Team (IIT), knowledge dissemination and conservation have taken the form of a Medicine Garden located outside of Cameron Library.

Emerging from ideas of community engagement, with reconciliation and Indigenization efforts at its center 1, the Medicine Garden had its second annual planting, watering, and weeding day in late May of this current year. Made possible by the full support, commitment, and incredibly helpful hands of the Indigenous Initiatives Team and our fantastic summer waterers from both libraries and museums, the garden has been teaching us the importance of patience, communication, and dedication. As a team, we have endeavoured to care for last year’s plants, while furthering our relationship with the land and the native species of amiskwacîwâskahikan/Edmonton by welcoming native and medicinal seeds back to the area. Led on our planting day by the insight and teachings of Kokum Bonny Spencer, IIT and the lovely folks from the UofA’s library and museum worked in tandem to plant raspberries, plantain, sage, wild roses, fireweed, tobacco, and corn, to name a few.

While the garden is in its current summer state, we on the Indigenous Initiatives Team hope that folks who pass by the garden space will take a moment to pause, admire, and engage respectfully with the vegetables, flowers, fruit bushes, and shrubs. It is an area that welcomes students, staff, and community members, inviting them to consider how they might learn more from our green relatives and become better listeners to different living beings on our campus. Through this sharing, we hope that other folks on campus take inspiration and work to build their relationships with the land, continuing a cycle of knowledge movement and land reconciliation.  

Our garden continues to teach us the importance of sharing resources and knowledge, communicating with others, and the need for unbridled teamwork. Even as the summer crop comes to an end with us harvesting and donating it to the Campus Food Bank, we look to next year for continued collaborations with other groups and folks on campus. 

Through the library’s and the Indigenous Initiatives Team’s communal beliefs of teaching and learning, inclusion, research, and importantly, Indigenization and reconciliation1 a new year of gardening seeks to expand our garden community further. With our shared responsibility to do better and be better, next year’s gardening season could not come quickly enough.   

Thank you to Abigail Deck, Indigenous Library Intern for submitting this article!

Abigail Deck is a Master of Library and Information Studies student and currently working as the Indigenous Library Intern with the University of Alberta Library and Indigenous Initiatives Team. She is a proud member of the Otipemisiwak Metis Government of Alberta. Abigail works alongside other members of the Indigenous Initiatives Team to explore knowledge systems beyond the library walls and support student oriented learning opportunities.


1 University of Alberta Library. (2024). Mission, Vision + Priorities. Retrieved March 30, 2024, from https://www.library.ualberta.ca/about/vision 

This content is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licence.

#ualbertaCameron LibraryCampus Food BankIndigenous
0 comment
3
FacebookLinkedinRedditWhatsappEmail
Guest Author

previous post
Unpacking the Newspaper Digitization Process: A Case Study of The Western Review
next post
Concours de bibliothèque, rentrée 2025

You may also like

Community-Based Ownership of Knowledge and Open Journals at...

October 21, 2025

Célébrer la recherche ouverte par le personnel de...

October 20, 2025

Celebrating Open Scholarship from Library Staff: A Roundup...

October 20, 2025

Votre bibliothèque, votre bien-être : un lieu où...

October 10, 2025

More Than Books: Supporting Your Mental Health at...

October 10, 2025

Félicitations aux gagnants de notre concours de bibliothèque...

October 3, 2025

Congratulations to Our Fall Library Challenge Winners!

October 3, 2025

Celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of Sperber Library

October 2, 2025

Planting Seeds for the Future: News from the...

September 22, 2025

The Library and Your Well-being: A Message for...

September 10, 2025

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Instagram Corner

No any image found. Please check it again or try with another instagram account.

Categories

  • Collections (241)
    • Borrowing (64)
    • Collection Connection (5)
    • Digital Collections (105)
    • Special Collections (6)
  • Community (446)
    • Awards (16)
    • Events (29)
    • Exhibits (16)
    • News (24)
    • Staff (70)
  • Digital Services (22)
  • Français (150)
  • Wellness (43)
    • Dogs in the Library (5)

BLOG ARCHIVES

About Me

  • Instagram
  • Youtube

@2020- University of Alberta Library
The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6 territory and homeland of the Métis peoples. Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton


Back To Top