Celebrating the connections between people, plants, and place in Kjipuktuk / Halifax through Land Connects Us.
1. The Project: Installed on the Kjipuktuk/Halifax Waterfront, near the Helipad at Bishop’s Landing, the garden boxes will remain in place until the Nocturne Art-at-Night festival, October 16–19, 2025. These gardens are not only spaces of cultivation but also symbolic invitations to reconsider and redirect our relationship with places deeply marked by colonial history. (nocturnehalifax.ca)
In partnership with artist Sydney Wreaks and presented by Land Connects Us — an initiative of the project Planting the Seeds of Cultural Continuity, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada — we introduce a transformative practice of collective healing and care for the land.
2. Community Practices and Free Workshops: Part of the initiative “We All Meet at Food,” the project brings together local growing with a series of free public workshops, led by Nova Scotia–based artists whose practices center on local food, sustainable farming, and community knowledge cultivation.
The workshops connect directly with Nocturne’s 2025 curatorial theme — “Ground”, chosen by curator Marite Kuus — which invites us to reflect on the diverse relationships we hold with the spaces we inhabit: “Gardeners, mycologists, archaeologists, geologists… we each have distinct relationships with the ground we move through every day.”
Featured Plants — Wisdom and Connection
Two plants were chosen for their deep cultural and symbolic resonance:
- Apios americana (American Groundnut) — a sweet, versatile tuber, prepared much like a potato or ground into flour.
- Wild Woodland Strawberries (Heart Berry) — small wild berries that embody interconnectedness and community gathering.
Together, these plants are living expressions of the ties between land, Indigenous knowledge, and the practice of food-sharing as collective care.
Video – Preservation,Knowledge ,Transmission
“To preserve is to honor the past, to share knowledge is to sustain the present, and through transmission we plant the seeds of the future.”
Territory and Cultural Acknowledgement
This project takes place on Mi’kma’ki, the unceded and ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq people. It also honors the contributions of African Nova Scotian communities, whose presence and resilience are vital to the province’s cultural fabric. The initiative seeks to collaborate with, amplify, and connect to the diverse artistic communities who live and create on this land.
A Journey of Collective Transformation
This collaboration between Land Connects Us and artist Sydney Wreaks demonstrates how tending to even small plots of land can transform our relationship to history, place, and each other. Through collective cultivation, shared knowledge, and the exchange of food and medicine, we are invited to reconnect with respect, ancestry, and community.
Join us for upcoming workshops and explore how local growing can rebuild connections.
Follow updates on community harvest events during Nocturne Art-at-Night (October 16–19, 2025).
Be part of the conversation on healing, food, and land-based reconnection with Land Connects Us.
Land Connects Us 