Sweetgrass at U of G to Practice Reconciliation

After reading Robin Will Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, Dr. Sara Stricker (Guelph Turfgrass Institute) was prompted to collaborate with Dr. Susan Chiblow (School of Environmental Sciences), Natasha Young (Indigenous Student Centre), and Elders Mary Lou and Dan Smoke. Stricker hoped to grow a garden of sweetgrass for the University of Guelph campus.  

Sweetgrass is sacred in Anishinaabe and Métis communities, considered the “hair of mother earth,” and is used in basketry and smudging ceremonies, and as perfume and a sacred medicine. It is native to Ontario, Quebec, and the eastern Provinces as it likes to grow around water. Sweetgrass is largely wild and difficult to cultivate through seeds; instead, it spreads on its own through underground rhizomes. In Anishinaabe culture, sweetgrass is used as a reminder: the individual grass blades are delicate, but strong when woven together. The grass tells us that as a group, we can make a huge impact. 

The new bed of sweetgrass resides in the Guelph Turfgrass Institute and is supported by the University’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Enhancement Fund. Stricker hopes that this project will serve as a teaching resource in the long term and a constant symbol of reconciliation.  

Read the University of Guelph’s full article to learn more about this reconciliation initiative.