First Nations Garden
First Nations Garden (Wiinso, Wiikonge Otishinikaaso) was established in the Spring of 2019 due to community organizing led by the Chi-Nations Youth Council with support from Alderman Carlos Rosa of the 35th Ward. Chi-Nations is working closely with Neighborspace to ensure a more sustainable future for the garden.
First Nations Garden was chosen as the English name of the space. The term First Nations is a collective noun that emphasizes the importance of direct and ancestral relationships to the land, both human and non-human. As First Nations peoples, we’ve chosen names that carry the garden site’s history and ancestral ecological knowledge and assist in helping provide navigational information and teachings to the greater public.
Location
First Nations Garden, North Pulaski Road, Chicago, IL (Albany Park) – Cross Streets: Wilson Avenue and Pulaski Road
Mission
Our mission is to provide a healing space for Chicago’s First Nations communities and promote public knowledge and appreciation of Chicago’s Indigenous landscape and ecosystems.
Vision
Our shared vision is to create a preeminent cultural and educational hub within the Albany Park Neighborhood.
What’s Growing
Independent Plots: Independent raised bed plots within the First Nations Garden under direct care from autonomous community members. These beds are for their personal use, and they decide what is planted, which ranges from perennial beds to managing personal plots of vegetables.
*Independent plots are asked to refrain from growing corn and certain squash that may cross-pollinate with heritage varieties being grown by the management team.
Hinged Hoop House Raised Beds (HHHRB): The HHHRBs was built in the Fall of 2020 to start growing prairie sage, sweetgrass, and strawberries, all of which hold cultural significance to the Native communities of this region. The intention for these beds is to provide more access to traditional medicines of this region to the local Native Community.
Circular Raised Beds: We currently have 18 CRB for the 2022 growing season. In 2021our CRBs grew Midewiwin Tobacco, White Buffalo Cafe Tobacco, Prairie Sage, Echinacea, Bear Tongue Foxglove, Rose Milkweed, and Spotted Joe Pye Weed.
Planting Mounds: The mounds are directly managed by Chi-Nations each of the three mounds contains different Native plants. Our mounds are developed as a teaching aid to help revitalize Indigenous cultivation while providing substance for a wide range of pollinators.
Adopt A Plot: Community Plots have been fully allocated for the 2022 growing season. Since our inception, we have worked to maintain stewardship and relationships with our community gardeners. Once a plot is assigned to a community gardener, that gardener is allowed to keep their plot until they can no longer maintain their space.
*Community plots within the First Nations Garden are currently at capacity. Please email fng@chinations.org if you’d like to be placed on a waiting list.
First Nations Outdoor Gallery (Est. 2020)
The First Nations Outdoor Gallery comprises twelve exterior murals on the west side of the First Nations Garden fence line along Pulaski Rd. Gallery curator David Bernie has been working collaboratively with local and Native artists to reflect the demographic diversity of our city and capture how community spaces generate social and cultural interaction. Artists are tasked to develop imagery consistent with a preferred theme/message that explores the interconnectedness of BIPOC experiences to land/Chicago.
First Nations Garden on Instagram: @firstnationsgarden
Curator David Bernie: @davidbernie.art
Our Artists (in order of placement of art):
- David Bernie @davidbernie.art
- Laura Gomez @lago1810
- Makoon Nah Mabin @hotshobangirl1995
- Janie Pochel @duct_tape_moccasins
- Fawn Pochel @ndn_emo_trash
- Eleanor Ferguson @the.akicita.collection
- Izayo Mazehualli @izayomazehualli
- Jose Rodriguez @eightbitparty
- Luthando Mazibuko @lmazibukoart
- Teri Lopez @teri_talo
- Poncho @chicago_poncho
- Jacinda Bullie @jahdaampmouth
- Camille Billie @Katahtu.ntha
Awaiting:
- Justine Pochel @mariejustine84
- Gloria “Gloe” Talamantes @gloeone
Native Sundays
Native Sunday is a social space held at the First Nations Garden for Chicago’s Native community. Native Sundays were created out of the need for more collaboration, representation, accountability, and healing within Chicago’s Native community. Sundays are a place for Native people in Chicago to come and be surrounded by peers because Native people deserve spaces where our commonalities and shared experiences are centered with the acknowledgment and understanding that our tribal traditions and affiliations are uniquely diverse across our varying nations.
*BIPOC-identifying folks are welcome to attend by invite
Garden Wish List
Tools
- 6 transplanters – preferred
- 6 trowels – preferred
- 6 Hori Hori/Multi-Tools – preferred
- 6 hand forks – preferred
- 6 secateurs/hand pruners – preferred
- 6 watering cans – preferred
- Gloves (multiples of each size xl, l, medium) – preferred
- 2 tampers – preferred
- Manual weeded – preferred
- 4 garden scissors – preferred
- 4 garden Snips – preferred
- 2 pruning saws – preferred
- Extended pruning saw – preferred
- Gorilla cart – preferred
- 2 edgers – preferred
- 2 garden rakes – preferred
- 12 kneeling pads – preferred
- 3 loppers – preferred
- Wood chipper – preferred
- Wood splitter – preferred
- 2 axes – preferred
- Shed – preferred
- 6 dibbers – preferred
- 3 sprayers – preferred
- Honda generator (quiet) – preferred
- Weed trimmers – preferred
- 2 waterproof containers – preferred
- Generator box – preferred
- Blick gift cards
- Patio furniture
- 3 picnic tables
Materials
- Soil (Spring) – 15 cubic yard
- Firewood
Statement on the American Indian Center & First Nations Garden
From April 2019 to September 2019, the Chi-Nations Youth Council (CNYC) attempted to co-manage the First Nations Garden space with the American Indian Center (AIC) to promote a neutral healing space for Chicago’s Native community.
This was the first attempt by CNYC to work with AIC since 2015, when CNYC cut ties with AIC for partnering with the Chicago Blackhawks despite evidence that showcases “Indian” mascots and logos lower self-worth of Native youth and the self-esteem of Native Peoples as a whole.
As Native Peoples’, our identities are political and can not be separated from the politics and violence of our occupied state. Due to the reality of our existence as Native Peoples in Chicago and the desire to imagine a future of collective liberation, the AIC has permanently been removed from the management team of the First Nations Garden.
This decision was reached due to the perpetuation of anti-Blackness, Homophobia, Nationalism, and gender-based violence by the organization and the lack of fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability. Currently, the First Nations Garden is under Neighbor Space’s urban land trust on behalf of the Chi-Nations Youth Council.
