A First Nations garden in France

In a significant corner of a century-old garden in France, a First Nations garden holds a place of honor.

Ohtehra, (meaning root) happened as the result of a friendship between two directors, Gilles Vincent of Montreal Botanical Garden and Pascal Garb of Jardins Fruitiers de Laquenexy in Metz, France.

“It has been a three-year journey and much human energy before the spring opening in 2010,” commented Vincent.

When the two directors first discussed a garden in France, they agreed that a First Nations garden would provide a fresh perspective on Quebec’s Aboriginal people and create plenty of public interest.

But the question was, how to design the garden? French gardens are formal and feature art and sculpture, whereas the First Nations garden within Montréal Botanical Garden is just as nature intended. It is close covered with plenty of mature trees that extend from a stand of Laurentian maple hardwood, to a coniferous soft wood forest of pine and spruce, to a Nordic zone of tundra and a peat bog.

Plants indigenous to their specific zones grow among the trees. Meandering through this Aboriginal garden, visitors discover how Quebec’s 11 First Nations harvested and used their forest plants for food or medicine.

When it came time to design Ohtehra, the only First Nations garden outside of Canada, the two directors agreed that their garden should reflect the First Nations way of life. “But,” Vincent stressed, “our goal was not to stress the folkloric aspect of Native life. We wanted to include their history and the modern day Indian’s role in our ordinary world.”

An enthusiastic team in Montreal, including members of the Aboriginal community, took over to plan the garden. Size restraint of 1,000 sq. metres, precluded a vast forest with a sparkling stream similar to the Aboriginal Garden in Montreal. In consultation with First Nation artists their unique design evolved.

Entering the garden you walk along a passageway through an existing alley of hazelnuts to a pathway partly covered by branches of willow. This creates a buffer zone from the French garden and a mood of an Algonquin longhouse. Then the scene changes with palisades of tall poles, nearly five meters tall and similar to the poles that surrounded an Iroquois encampment, which surround the garden. In the centre is its heart: ‘La Place de la Grand Tortue,’ or the ‘Square of the Great Turtle.’ This oval represents the creation story of the Iroquois nation, a turtle rising from the sea.

The turtles’ body is made up of 13 stone scales representing the 13 moons of the First Nations calendar.
The oval is rimmed by a low, slightly undulating stone wall representing the sea. Thirteen moons of woven basketry suspended on slender poles were created by Abenaki artist Christine Sioui Wawanoloath and French artist Laurent Weiss. Plants and shrubs, indigenous to native gardens in Quebec, have been carefully chosen. In the middle of summer it will be ablaze with bright yellow sunflowers.

On the afternoon of its opening, Chief Kapiteotak of the Algonquin tribe described First Nation traditions to a fascinated group of French children. Then, in the evening, he discussed spiritual traditions, including the 13-month lunar calendar of the Iroquois and Algonquin nations to an adult audience. And he smoked a peace pipe with Mme. Penelope Fillion, wife of the First Minister of France.

During the time that the garden is open, special events are planned. Young First Nation tour guides from Montreal Botanical Gardens will take guided tours through their Canadian garden in France. Familiar with their own ancestral history, they will tell the First Nations’ story, that back in time their tribes were conservationists and ecologists before the words had been invented.

They point out that Algonquin and Inuit in the northern areas were hunters, but the  Mohawks and the Huron-Wendat, whose territories were in a moderate climate, farmed their land.

The guides describe their staple crop, tended by the women, the Three Sisters: beans, corn and squash. Why sisters? They work together. The beans put nitrogen into the soil, cornstalks provide bean poles and the squash leaves protect the soil and keep it moist. Tobacco used in sacred ceremonies was cultivated by the men.

Besides being a garden of plants, Ohtehra has had on its list of performers, the Sandowka (Wendake) dancers. The Welcome Centre displays contemporary First Nations art from Quebec.

The gift shop carries the work of Aboriginal artists such as woven wood fibre baskets made by the women from Odanak. The restaurant is serving meals flavored with produce from Quebec gardens.

Ohtehra reminds the world that Jacques Cartier was not the first person to set foot on Canadian shores. When he arrived, he found there was already a thriving Aboriginal population that had been living in this “new country” for thousands of years.

Today there is still a thriving Aboriginal population in Quebec’s cities, on farms, in artists’ communities and working in business.

Ohtehra is spreading the word about Quebec’s rich Aboriginal culture to the people of France. The garden has been such a success that it will continue for the next two summers.