Many Thanks to all who attended the Native American Acknowledgement Garden celebration at Rutgers Gardens in May 2022! It was a wonderful gathering and we were so grateful to witness a land blessing ceremony led by Ramapough Lunaape Turtle Clan Chief Vincent Mann. This event is just the first step in a long process of working with NJ's Indigenous communities to create an Acknowledgement Garden on campus. Watch this space for more photos, videos, and drawings created at the event & to learn more about the next steps as we learn more about how communities would like this to take shape !
In the Fall 2021 semester, Rutgers professors Dr. Anita Bakshi (Landscape Architecture), Professor Holly Nelson (Landscape Architecture), and Dr. Jimmy Sweet (American Studies) applied for and received an IDEA Innovation Grant from Rutgers to support this project. This is the beginning of a process of planning for the creation of a garden on Rutgers campus that acknowledges Native American history and celebrates the continued presence of Indigenous communities in our state. The garden will contain plants significant to Native American communities for medicinal, ceremonial, and agricultural uses. Rutgers Gardens has agreed to dedicate a site for this project.
Rutgers Landscape Architecture students created some initial design ideas for the garden in the Spring 2022 Planting Design class taught by Professor Holly Nelson. This is the first step towards designing and creating this space. After researching and hearing from invited guest speakers, students created a list of plants significant to Native American communities for medicinal, ceremonial, and agricultural uses and used this plant palette to create some initial design concepts that are being used to gather feedback from the Native American community in New Jersey about what they would like to see included in the garden.
Funding for the event was generously provided through the Rutgers IDEA Innovation Grant Program and by the Center for Cultural Analysis.
