St. John’s Park in North End to be site of Healing Forest

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Reconciliation is going from concept to concrete in Winnipeg, thanks to the efforts of North End advocates.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2018 (2797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reconciliation is going from concept to concrete in Winnipeg, thanks to the efforts of North End advocates.

The second Healing Forest in Canada will be installed at St. John’s Park, starting this summer. The first was installed in Edmonton in 2016.

Design plans for Winnipeg’s version are being unveiled Monday at the St. John’s Cathedral meeting hall.

PHIL HOSSACK / Winnipeg Free Press
Kyle Mason (left) and Very Reverend Paul Johnson at St. John’s Park, where Canada’s second-ever Healing Forest will see its first phase at the site finished in the summer.
PHIL HOSSACK / Winnipeg Free Press Kyle Mason (left) and Very Reverend Paul Johnson at St. John’s Park, where Canada’s second-ever Healing Forest will see its first phase at the site finished in the summer.

The project is a living memorial, dedicated to children lost in the residential school system, and provides a meeting space where the next generations can move forward, said Kyle Mason, one of the project’s co-ordinators.

“It’s going to have an immediate impact on the immediate neighbourhood, but the Healing Forest is available to anybody and everybody around the city and beyond,” said Mason, the son of two residential school survivors. “I’m a father, and it’s one of my personal hopes and desires that my son learns about the family history and family trauma in residential schools. It’s almost a foreign concept (to him).”

Up to 12 new trees and a garden will be planted for the Healing Forest. Two sharing circles will also be built, which can serve as an outdoor classroom for North End schools and an area for land education, ceremonies and storytelling, similar to the Oodena Celebration Circle at The Forks.

“We see this as kind of an addition to (Oodena Circle),” Mason said. “This forest has aspects of being a memorial, but it’s different in that it’s a healing forest. We are remembering, we’re not forgetting. But we’re also coming together to heal and reconcile, and to have a different future.”

Mason said phase one of construction should be finished for the 125th anniversary of St. John’s Park this summer.

About $45,000 for the project came from the province and the University of Winnipeg. Organizers hope to find more donors for phase two.

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @_jessbu

History

Updated on Saturday, February 10, 2018 7:05 AM CST: Headline fixed.

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