Lying nestled in the plants and trees across the street from the is a project more than four years in the making, finally coming to fruition.
An is being constructed just a 10-minute walk from UNC-Chapel Hill landmarks, like the Old Well. The American Indian Center said that students had expressed an 鈥渙verwhelming鈥� need for such a space. The cultural garden is meant to become a space that recognizes and affirms Indigenous presence throughout the state, with plans to incorporate culturally important plants, ceremonial spaces, and art. It will be the first garden of its kind at a public university in North Carolina.
The pertinence of plants
The cultural garden is a collaboration between the UNC American Indian Center and the . While talks for such a space had been ongoing for years, 2019 marked the beginning of transforming those talks into a reality.
In February 2020, the American Indian Center and the N.C. Botanical Garden held its first workshop for the cultural garden. There, students, faculty, and leaders of the state鈥檚 tribal communities came together to for what such a space could look like, and what purposes it could serve.
With her own garden experience, Waccamaw Siouan elder Darlene Graham, 66, has been one of many providing input at listening sessions for the new garden, sometimes making a two-hour trip up the road from Bolton, N.C.
Back home in Columbus County, Graham helped establish the Healing Green Space on Waccamaw Siouan tribal lands to grow native, sacred, and medicinal plants.
The green space is a garden featuring plants like sassafras, mullein, and the Three Sisters, which are corn, beans, and squash symbiotically growing together. The tall corn stalks weren鈥檛 doing as well this year as they had in years prior, according to Graham. They were left leaning at drastic angles shortly after Tropical Storm Debby in August, yet their root systems remained planted firm.
鈥淭hat corn tells so much about who we are,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淗ow we stood the resistance of time, how we are still here even through the difficulties that we had. That corn tells that story within itself, once you listen to it.鈥�
Graham said that the Healing Green Space has awakened within herself what she described as a gift of traditional knowledge.
鈥淭hat Healing Green Space connects us to who we are,鈥� Graham said. 鈥淲hen people said, 鈥榊ou didn't exist,鈥� the plants say we did, and we do. We still exist. It has helped us deal with a lot of historical trauma, and the same will be with the garden in Chapel Hill.鈥�
From Conceptual to Concrete
Groundbreaking on the American Indian Cultural Garden happened last year on UNC-Chapel Hill鈥檚 campus, across from the American Indian Center on Wilson Street. A current garden already inhabits much of the space: the , which aims to make fresh produce accessible to University employees. The new cultural garden will wrap around and envelop the community garden.
In July, the cultural garden was still in the early stages of development. It didn鈥檛 look like much 鈥� yet. Some gravel on the ground laid out half a walkway. But, the associate director of the American Indian Center, Marissa Carmi, has big plans.
The back right of the garden will have a ceremonial gathering space, with boulder seating around a central fire pit. Carmi has also been brainstorming how to incorporate public art and a water feature.
鈥淭here's a very, very wet area that holds a lot of water,鈥� Carmi said. 鈥淲e've been talking about what we could feature back there that is representative of the more low-lying wetlands of the East.鈥�
Like any good garden, it will showcase various plants. Those will be native, sacred or otherwise important to native communities. Some of the plants were already in the space: a dogwood tree will serve as a prayer tree; cedars in the area are part of the in Native practices. There are pecan trees throughout, with green nuts beginning to grow in bunches.
鈥淲hen this pecan tree drops a bunch of pecans, it would be really fun to have some type of event around that,鈥� Carmi said. 鈥淧ecans shells can be used for different types of Native crafts, so we could do programming with that. We will be working with the garden in its seasonality. When it produces, when it gives, that's when we're going to build the programming around it.鈥�
Around $164,000 have gone into the garden鈥檚 development, according to the Botanical Garden, with funding from organizations like the Mellon Foundation, the Triangle Community Foundation, the Jandy Ammons Foundation, and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
While unique, Carmi said that the garden is part of a growing movement for a return to Indigenous expertise on land stewardship and conservation. She said that she hopes the garden helps Native students, staff, and faculty feel welcome on campus. And, in addition to being a gathering and meditative space, Carmi said that she wants it to be an educational one too. Through the art and plants, she said, the garden can highlight the diversity of native communities across the south, and how similar resources may be used differently.
鈥淣ative people are everywhere, and sometimes it doesn't seem that way,鈥� Carmi said. 鈥淭hat's what makes things like the garden really significant. It brings visibility to a population that is often rendered invisible, even though Native people are everywhere.鈥�
North Carolina has the largest American Indian population east of the Mississippi River, with eight state-recognized tribes: the Coharie, the Eastern Band of Cherokee, the Haliwa-Saponi, the Lumbee, the Meherrin, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Sappony, and the Waccamaw Siouan. The state is also home to the Tuscarora Nation, based in Robeson County.
Starting to Feel Like Something
Last month, many of the cultural garden鈥檚 local trees received some preemptive pruning from Daniel Stern, the N.C. Botanical Garden鈥檚 horticulture director.
Stern has been in charge of using community input to transform the for the garden into something more specific and construction-ready. That can consist of decisions like whether shade should be provided by trees or structures in some areas, or where the garden鈥檚 boulders should be sourced from. He said that this project has been unique in comparison to others due to the immense cultural considerations put into the design elements.
鈥淭his trope of the snake eating its own tail, that's one of the inspirations behind the sinewy walkway that takes people through this space,鈥� Stern said. 鈥淪o, we're keeping the aesthetics very naturalistic here, and sourcing a lot of this material locally. A lot of this is about really bringing out the beauty of here as well, this particular place.鈥�
For the past year, Stern has helped transform the space from one overrun by invasive plants into an open canvas.
鈥淚t's starting to feel like something,鈥� Stern said. 鈥淚'm excited that we're breaking ground and moving forward.鈥�
It felt like something for Waccamaw Siouan elder Darlene Graham too. After a recent personal loss in Chapel Hill brought her back to the area, Graham found herself visiting the garden. She said that just looking at all it will grow to be, she knows it will serve as a sense of home and remembrance for visitors, and something more, too.
鈥淭hat garden is going to bring a peace that surpasses all understanding,鈥� Graham said.
According to the UNC American Indian Center, the garden鈥檚 infrastructure 鈥� things like the pathway, seating and fences 鈥� should be completed this fall, with community planting sessions later in the year and an opening celebration come spring. But even then, the center said, a garden is never really done. This one is an ever-growing labor of love.
