If you are an Indigenous grower, land steward or community member, you are welcome to attend this field day free of charge! Please use the coupon code GARDEN2025 when filling out the registration form to receive free admission.

Join Chef Johl Whiteduck for a tour of the Indigenous Community & Healing Garden at Ajax Pickering Lakeridge Hospital. Created through a collaboration between Miinikaan Innovation & Design, Elder Kim Wheatley, We Grow Food, the Town of Ajax, and the hospital, this unique space was designed as a place of healing, learning, and community connection.

The garden features a central circular design with raised demonstration beds and “grandfather stones,” honouring Indigenous teachings of the circle and the interconnectedness of community. Plantings include the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—alongside seasonal vegetables, fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, and plants with ceremonial or medicinal value. Every element of the design is intentional, reflecting Indigenous storytelling, history, and ceremony.

Guided by Elder Kim Wheatley, who continues to provide traditional oversight, and with support from We Grow Food to help with planting and training, the garden also contributes to local food security by making fresh produce accessible to community members. By establishing this space on hospital grounds, it sets a precedent for how Indigenous design and knowledge can be integrated into community health and well-being.

Details:

• Tour runs rain or shine.
• Dress comfortably and be prepared to walk.

Speaker:

Chef Johl Whiteduck is the owner of NishDish Marketeria and Catering, an award-winning small business that’s been reclaiming and serving traditional Anishinaabe food since 2005. Chef Johl’s journey of Indigenous Food Sovereignty has led him to founding Ojibiikaan Indigenous Cultural Network, along with the first Indigenous Harvesters & Artisans market. He has spearheaded Indigenous gardens and a small business dedicated to Indigenous gardens called Miinikaan Innovation and Design, and numerous community partnerships. His creation in 2017 of an Indigenous Culinary Arts curriculum, a ceremonial in-depth land and food-based program, led to some of the first traditionally planted Three Sisters gardens in the GTA. The gifts to Chef Johl of centuries-old ancestral seeds started the ongoing development of an extensive Indigenous seed bank. The expansion of NishDish’s Indigenous food gardens around the city laid the groundwork for the birth of a brand-new organization that Chef Johl founded in 2018, called Ojibiikaan Indigenous Cultural Network. He is the founding Board President of the first and only not-for-profit dedicated to Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the GTA.

This event is part of EFAO’s Indigenous Outreach and Engagement Initiative, which is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness.