Celebrate the beginnings of a Native American Acknowledgement Garden on the Rutgers University campus. Design concepts for the garden will be shared and we would love to get your feedback on the possible options! We will hear from representatives from New Jersey’s Native American communities and witness a ceremonial land blessing.

In the Fall 2021 semester, Rutgers professors Dr. Anita Bakshi (Landscape Architecture), Professor Holly Nelson (Landscape Architecture), and Dr. Jimmy Sweet (American Studies) applied for and received an IDEA Innovation Grant from Rutgers to support this project. This is the beginning of a process of planning for the creation of a garden on Rutgers campus that acknowledges Native American history and celebrates the continued presence of Indigenous communities in our state. The garden will contain plants significant to Native American communities for medicinal, ceremonial, and agricultural uses. Rutgers Gardens has agreed to dedicate a site for this project. 

Rutgers Landscape Architecture students created some initial design ideas for the garden in the Spring 2022 Planting Design class taught by Professor Holly Nelson. This is the first step towards designing and creating this space. After researching and hearing from invited guest speakers, students created a list of plants significant to Native American communities for medicinal, ceremonial, and agricultural uses and used this plant palette to create some initial design concepts that are being used to gather feedback from the Native American community in New Jersey about what they would like to see included in the garden.

Refreshments will be served.

Rutgers Gardens Log Cabin Pavilion
130 Log Cabin Road, North Brunswick, NJ 08902

Funding for the event is generously provided through the Rutgers IDEA Innovation Grant Program and by the Center for Cultural Analysis.