Healing Forests can rekindle our understanding, love and respect for each other and nature
From Gibsons, B.C., to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, individuals and communities have come together to dedicate green spaces big and small to the first inhabitants of the land and their descendants, to educate people about this country’s tragic past and to offer people a chance to begin their own personal journey toward reconciliation. They’re called Healing Forests, and in a time of overwhelming despair and fading hope about the state of our nation and planet, they offer tangible actions every one of us can take to promote health, healing and community.
The David Suzuki Foundation is partnering with the National Healing Forest Initiative to expand the current network of 10 Healing Forests. Combining reconciliation and healing into one immersive experience, each Healing Forest is different. Today, one is on the grounds of a church. One is on a private land. Another is in a woodlot next to a school. But they all bring people together to learn about those we share these lands with.
APPLY FOR FUNDING TO HELP CREATE A HEALING FOREST
Spending time in nature is good for your health. Now, it can also be a deliberate act of reconciliation.
Jode Roberts, Manager, Rewilding Communities
How Healing Forests began
In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report in 2015, Saulteaux Cree lawyer Patricia Stirbys and geologist and international development consultant Peter Croal founded the National Healing Forest Initiative. They didn’t prescribe what a Healing Forest should look like. All they asked was that it be a quiet green space dedicated to the spirit of reconciliation.
Learn more about the National Healing Forest Initiative and its co-founders
By establishing a Healing Forest, anyone can take that first step to bring people together, help them reflect on this country’s tragic past and connect with nature and each other.
Patricia Stirbys, Co-founder, National Healing Forests Initiative
Together, Patricia and Peter expanded the network of Healing Forests to 10 throughout the country. This year, the David Suzuki Foundation is proud to be partnering with them to provide support to people and groups that want to establish Healing Forests in 10 more communities.
How to get involved
The David Suzuki Foundation is partnering with the National Healing Forest Initiative with the goal of growing the national network of Healing Forests. DSF will provide financial support to 10 communities this year. At the bottom of this page is an application form. We are looking to hear from keen community members who are interested in creating a local Healing Forest. Applicants can be in early planning stages, or further along their journey, with partners and community support already secured. Successful applicants will receive up to $2,000 to assist in their efforts to establish a Healing Forest. The deadline to apply is July 1, 2022. For more information, see the form below.
A look inside Healing Forests. Get inspiration for your own!
Noojimo’iwewin Gitigaan Healing Garden
Stewarded by members of the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Group at St. Matthew’s United Church in Toronto, this small green space is home to more than 100 species of native plants. Both the land and the water are acknowledged in signage that situates the garden between the “lost rivers” of Taddle and Garrison creeks, and identifies the four sacred medicines – tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, and cedar – that grow here.
Perth Healing Forest
To mark the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, more than 200 people attended a gathering at the Perth Healing Forest in Last Duel Municipal Park on September 30, 2021.
Riverside Knowledge Path
The Riverside Knowledge Path is tucked away behind Riverside School in Albert Bridge, Nova Scotia. An accessible gravel two kilometre walking path guides you through the surrounding Acadian forest. Read a book from the comfort of one of the wooden benches, gather in the Mawita’nej Learning Pergola or make music at the Sule’katike’l Sound Garden. The Path is home to a Healing Forest and a sharing circle, a space where students, staff and visitors can come together in the spirit of reconciliation.
Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest
Located in St. John’s Park, Winnipeg, the Kapabamayak Achaak (“Wandering Spirit”) Healing Forest received its Spirit name as a gift from Peetanacoot Nenakawekapo, an Anishnaabe Elder. The gathering space, based on the medicine wheel, provides a place for quiet reflection and ceremony. A sacred fire pit is available. Four large grandmother stones mark the four directions. The steering committee is working with neighbouring schools and communities to develop a living curriculum to learn about medicine plants and Indigenous teachings.
Fitch Bay Healing Forest
On October 7, 2018, the Fitch Bay Healing Forest was inaugurated with ceremony, respect, and community. It’s the first Healing Forest to be created in Quebec and on private land – another first. Its champion, Terry Loucks, established the forest on the two-and-a-half hectares he owns in order to preserve his spiritual ancestors’ legacy and heal people as it did him.
How to establish a Healing Forest
Since 2015, Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities have been coming together to develop their own Healing Forest ideas. The National Healing Forest Initiative has left it to communities to determine what their Healing Forest would look like and how it would function. The only proviso is that each Healing Forest be established and used in the spirit of reconciliation, healing, shared understanding, and respect.
For more information, check out the National Healing Forest Initiative FAQ page.
Apply for support to create a Healing Forest
The David Suzuki Foundation and National Healing Forests Initiative have partnered to help grow the national network of Healing Forests throughout Canada. This is a unique initiative to create spaces where Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can come together in the spirit of reconciliation to heal, reflect, meditate, talk, share, and build respect and understanding.
Thank you very much for expressing a genuine interest in the National Healing Forest Initiative and reconciliation. The existing Healing Forests throughout Canada are proving to be powerful and transformational places for healing, reconciliation and community building. We hope you too can join the growing network of Healing Forests to honour the young lives lost while in Residential School care as well as survivors and their families.
This application form is for individuals, groups, companies and agencies that are aiming to establish a local Healing Forest in their community. Support of up to $2,000 will be provided to 10 communities this year. All applicants must complete and submit this form before July 1, 2022, to be eligible. The David Suzuki Foundation and National Healing Forests Initiative will confirm successful applicants by July 15, 2022.
Go take a hike! It might just heal you
Forests in Canada
42%
of Canada is forest
347 million hectares
of forest land in Canada
9%
of the world’s woodland is in Canada
How do forests heal?
Forest bathing, or the act of immersing all your senses in nature, is a practice developed in Japan in the 1980s. Known as shinrin-yoku, it’s a form of eco-therapy rooted in knowledge many cultures have long embraced: spending time in nature is good for your health.
Science backs it up. A 2019 study of the physiological and psychological effects of forest bathing on working-age people found “significant positive effects on mental health, especially in those with depressive tendencies.”
Another study found forest bathing significantly enhanced “people’s emotional state, attitude, and feelings towards things, physical and psychological recovery, and adaptive behaviors; and obvious alleviation of anxiety and depression.”
The next time someone tells you to take a hike, take them up on their offer. Better yet, invite them to come along and start a healing journey together.
David Suzuki
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