The Carleton Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) recently brightened up the area near their garden with a mural painted by Kalkidan Assefa, a local artist.
The mural covers a shed near the garden, which is located behind the H.H.J. Nesbitt Biology building. Assefa has painted several other murals around Ottawa, including a mural of social activist Sandra Bland at the corner of Bronson Avenue and Slater Street.
“Jenna is really awesome, she’s been taking the lead with the garden really well,” Owusu-Akyeeah said.
“We’re very excited about it,” Smith said in an email. “The mural itself features a ruby throated hummingbird—an endemic native pollinator.”
Assefa also included images of corn, beans, and squash. These vegetables are also known as the Three Sisters, and play a significant role in Indigenous farming practices, Smith said.
“[Assefa] noted that these choices were meant to illustrate the balance that can be found through smaller-scale sustainable farming practices,” he said.
“We had asked [Assefa] to create a mural centred around these sorts of principles as these are the principles which ground the [garden],” Smith said. “Because the garden is located on unceded, unsurrendered Algonquin territory and partnership with the Ottawa Indigenous community has been central in its development, we’re very happy with the inclusion of the Three Sisters.”
The inclusion of the hummingbird as a symbol of the pollinator is also significant to the mural because the garden itself contains a whole plot devoted to plants who attract pollinators.
“We actively promote practices of companion planting and organic gardening as well as permaculture principles more generally,” Smith said. “We’re very happy with the inclusion of a pollinator as the recognition of the huge importance of these species is central to respecting and acting in harmony with nature and its processes.”
