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

Wellness

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

    by Guest Author August 12, 2025
    written by Guest Author

    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.

    August 12, 2025 0 comment
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  • Journée internationale du bonheur

    by Guest Author March 19, 2025
    by Guest Author March 19, 2025

    La bibliothèque a invité Heather Ritz, assistante sociale communautaire auprès de Wellness Supports (uab.ca/wellness), à partager ses réflexions sur la Journée internationale du bonheur à l’Université de l’Alberta.   Le 20 mars est la Journée internationale du bonheur. En cette période de l’année où les pressions sont fortes, il est légitime de se demander pourquoi célébrer le bonheur. Est-il vraiment possible dans ce contexte ? N’est-ce qu’une platitude? Cependant, je pense qu’il est…

  • Days of Action – International Day of Happiness

    by Elisabet Ingibergsson March 13, 2025
    by Elisabet Ingibergsson March 13, 2025

    The Library invited Heather Ritz, Community Social Worker with Wellness Supports (uab.ca/wellness) to share her reflections about the International Day of Happiness at the University of Alberta.  March 20 is International Day of Happiness, and given the time of year, you may be wondering why on earth we would celebrate happiness as end-of-term pressures are mounting. Is happiness even possible? Is talking about happiness at this time of year merely a platitude? …

  • Days of Action – World Day of Social Justice

    by Guest Author February 19, 2025
    by Guest Author February 19, 2025

    The U of A Library invited Heather Ritz, Community Social Worker with Wellness Supports (uab.ca/wellness) to share her reflections about World Day of Social Justice and the Days of Action’s plans for a Living Library at the U of A.  February 20 is World Day of Social Justice. This day is meant as a global reminder to actively make choices at all levels of society that help our communities prioritise social justice…

  • Le Bonheur Réfléchi : Expressions Créatives 2025

    by Guest Author December 16, 2024
    by Guest Author December 16, 2024

    Il est difficile de trouver le bonheur en nous, il est impossible de le trouver ailleurs. –Nicolas Chamfort Depuis 2013, la Journée internationale du bonheur est célébrée le 20 mars chaque année. Initiée par les Nations unies “pour reconnaître l’importance du bonheur dans la vie des gens du monde entier”, elle nous rappelle que nous pouvons participer activement à notre propre bien-être et à celui des autres en adoptant des pratiques qui cultivent le…

  • Happiness Reflected welcomes submissions of creative works

    by Guest Author December 16, 2024
    by Guest Author December 16, 2024

    Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama Since 2013, International Day of Happiness has been celebrated every March 20. Initiated by the United Nations “to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world,” it reminds us that we can actively participate in our own—and others’—wellbeing by engaging in practices that cultivate lasting happiness.  While challenges are often beyond our control, Happiness…

  • Days of Action: World Hello Day :)

    by Guest Author November 21, 2024
    by Guest Author November 21, 2024

    To bring awareness to the Days of Action at the University of Alberta, the Library invited Heather Ritz, Community Social Worker with Wellness Supports (uab.ca/wellness) to share her reflections as well as resources to explore for World Hello Day – November 21. Hello, I’m so glad you’re here! (This seems to me to be the most appropriate way to begin a reflection on World Hello Day, but truly, I mean it: Hello!). …

  • Days of Action : La journée mondiale du bonjour :)

    by Guest Author November 21, 2024
    by Guest Author November 21, 2024

    Pour souligner les Days of Action de l’université de l’Alberta, la bibliothèque a invité Heather Ritz, travailleuse sociale communautaire auprès de services de bien-être à partager ses réflexions ainsi que des ressources à explorer à l’occasion de la journée mondiale du “bonjour” le 21 novembre. Bonjour, je suis ravie que vous soyez là ! (Il me semble qu’un chaleureux « bonjour! » est la manière la plus appropriée de commencer cette réflexion…

  • Days of Action: Journée mondiale de la santé mentale avec Heather Ritz

    by Guest Author October 9, 2024
    by Guest Author October 9, 2024

    Dans le cadre de la sensibilisation aux Days of Action at the University of Alberta, la bibliothèque a invité Heather Ritz, assistante sociale communautaire auprès de Wellness Supports à partager ses réflexions ainsi que des ressources à explorer à l’occasion de la Journée mondiale de la santé mentale, le 10 octobre. Prendre soin de soi Je vis dans une maison de location et le fait d’avoir un jardin me manque beaucoup. Cet…

  • Unwind Your Mind returns to the Library

    by Junelle Mah April 9, 2024
    by Junelle Mah April 9, 2024

    As the 2024 winter semester draws to a close this month, the Library welcomes back our friends from U of A’s Wellness Supports for Unwind Your Mind exam-time mental health initiatives in our various library locations starting Wednesday, April 10 until Friday, April 26. And yes, the bunnies are back! In addition to the activities listed below, all locations have apples as a healthy snack option. During the evenings of April 16…

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


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