WallsinFlowerAndWaterFlowingUnderground

Starting from the Tollkeeper’s Park National Healing Forest project, this walk will follow Gete-Onigaming (now called Davenport Road) past the beginnings of Ziibiing (now called Taddle Creek) in Wychwood Park, then turn left down Christie Street to view the 2021 underpass murals by Red Urban Nation (RUN) Art Collective, founded by artist, chef, and entrepreneur, Johl Whiteduck Ringuette. Elder Catherine Brooks will then lead us south along Shaw Street, as we listen for what is now called Garrison Creek and learn about Water as Life.

From Shaw Street, we will cross Christie Pits Park to the Bickford Centre, recognizing the shape of the creek and its banks in what was once called Willowvale. Johl Whiteduck Ringuette’s vision for re-Indigenizing this area will be further explored at the Centre’s Miinikaan Indigenous Teaching Garden, designated part of the coast-to-coast-to-coast National Healing Forest movement in 2022. We will not only celebrate the biodiversity in this demonstration Medicine and pollinator patch, but also the stunning RUN murals that surround it, ultimately leading into Bickford Park with its dozens of native tree species.