Imagine if every person gave over just a little patch of their land — to plant a tree, build a pollinator garden, restore a bit of wetland, or create a corridor for wildlife. With each small act of restoration, fragmented landscapes could begin to heal.
Yards, school grounds, boulevards, and backlots could become part of a living mosaic — threads in a growing tapestry of biodiversity. Butterflies would return. Songbirds would find safe places to rest and feed. Frogs would sing again in backyard ponds. And children, growing up in these renewed spaces, would witness firsthand the power of giving back to the Earth.
In this, Indigenous communities can lead the way.
While working hard to implement the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, it is important to also consider another form of reconciliation: reconciling with the land that humans have damaged.
Thanks to the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation and The Monarch Ultra group, this vision is starting to become real for Camp Kawartha and partners.
In collaboration with the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board (PVNCCDSB), GreenUP, and knowledge holders from Curve Lake First Nation, Camp Kawartha is helping three schools — Curve Lake First Nation School, St. John in Peterborough, and St. Paul in Lakefield — transform their school grounds by adding green infrastructure where Indigenous ways of knowing can be taught.
In the West, there is a general sense of helplessness so widespread that it has been given a name: eco-anxiety or eco-phobia, a paralyzing fear in the face of overwhelming environmental problems. Many children, and adults too, fall into apathy, convinced the challenges are too vast, too far gone to make a difference.
What’s often missing is agency — the belief that one can do something meaningful right where they live. That’s where real change begins.
Every place of residence, work, and learning offers a choice: make it worse, leave it as it is, or make it better.
Environmental education often focuses on reducing harm: turn off lights, recycle, bike instead of drive, pick up trash. These are good habits, but they fall into the mitigation trap of trying to be “less bad.” What does doing good look like?
It looks like bringing nature home: rewilding schoolyards, planting native gardens, creating pollinator corridors, installing birdhouses and bee hotels. It looks like transforming paved spaces into vibrant ecosystems rich with life.
In partnership with staff and students, knowledge holder and Indigenous education advisor to the PVNCCDSB Board Anne Taylor, learning consultant Mike Mooney, educators Glen Caradus and Theo Jacobs, along with GreenUP’s neighbourhood and residential programs coordinator Laura Keresztesi, the team is working together to bring these spaces to life.
The Reconciling with the Land initiative will teach students about the living world — soil, plants, water, animals — through “two-eyed seeing,” combining Western science and Indigenous knowledge. These grounds also serve as places to revitalize Anishinaabemowin, the traditional language of the Michi Saagiig Anishnaabeg.
“This language is not just a human invention — it arises from the land itself,” Anne says. “When spoken, the land understands.”
Fewer and fewer people speak Anishinaabemowin fluently. By teaching students the words of the living world around them, this beautiful language is kept alive, while deepening their relationship with the Earth at the same time.
These reshaped schoolyards are a reminder that sustainability is no longer enough. It’s essential to regenerate — to give back to the land, and to show children that people and nature can thrive together.
Reconciling the Land represents a movement rooted in hope, reciprocity, renewal, and First Nations ways of knowing.
GreenUP is currently recruiting volunteers to help care for plants at local schoolyards. To join the efforts or learn more, email christina.balint@greenup.on.ca.
