Seeds of partnership: University, Onondaga Nation to plant garden space on May 1
Campus will also host the seventh annual Haudenosaunee Festival this fall
Members of the Onondaga Nation will return to campus for the second annual planting of the Three Sisters Garden at 11 a.m. May 1, in the Science 1 courtyard.
They will bring with them heirloom varieties of corn, beans and squash — the Three Sisters of Haudenosaunee culture — and conduct a traditional thanksgiving land-blessing,” said Assistant Professor of Anthropology BrieAnna Langlie.
Located in Binghamton University’s Science 1 courtyard, the project is a partnership between the University and the Onondaga Nation, the original inhabitants of the land that now comprises campus. Harpur College classes from world history and anthropology to environmental studies use the garden as a learning tool, as well as a locus for volunteer work.
“The Three Sisters space is just as much about the Indigenous knowledge of agriculture as it is about the relationships we’re building by planting this garden,” Langlie said.
The campus community engages with the Onondaga Nation on the project at least twice a year, and not just in the garden proper; Nation members such as Angela Ferguson, who supervises the Onondaga Nation Farm in Central New York, speak with classes about local Indigenous agricultural practices and culture.
“Angela Ferguson and the farm are also partners in ongoing community engaged-learning course projects,” said Barrett Brenton, faculty engagement associate for the Center for Civic Engagement.
Faculty, staff and students will tend the garden all summer, with hour-long volunteer weeding shifts scheduled for 10 a.m. on Fridays. The Center for Integrated Watershed Studies also installed a Chronolog at the site, which will allow digital visitors to watch the garden grow all summer long on the Chronolog website.
Prior to the May 1 planting ceremony, an Onondaga Nation storyteller will share the Haudenosaunee creation story with the Campus Pre-School. The Three Sisters are part of that story, as granddaughters of Sky Woman, whose fall from the heavens precipitated the creation of Turtle Island.
On Sept. 29 and 30, the garden will host a harvest celebration in conjunction with the local Haudenosaunee Festival. Hosted by the Vestal Museum for the last six years, the two-day community event will move to the Peace Quad and feature Native American speakers, artists, musicians, dancers, vendors and food.
“The garden is growing into something bigger than itself. It’s growing into a campus-wide show of support for the ancestors who lived on this land from time immemorial,” Langlie said.