Awen’ Gathering Place

Collingwood – 2018

The Awen’ Indigenous Gathering Place is a cultural landscape along Collingwood’s waterfront that recognizes the long-standing Indigenous presence in South Georgian Bay and creates a setting for learning, ceremony, reflection, and reconciliation. Elevated on a berm within Harbourview Park overlooking Georgian Bay, the project establishes a symbolic gateway between land, water, and community.

The sculptural open-air pavilion was developed through the guidance of elder Dr. Duke Redbird in collaboration with Brook McIlroy’s Indigenous Design Studio and expresses the Seven Ancestor Teachings through its form and artistic detailing.

Envision-Tatham served as landscape architect responsible for site planning, the ceremonial lawn, circulation, and landscape rehabilitation. Adjacent to the pavilion, the ceremonial lawn provides a flexible space for gathering and programming, anchored by a central fire pit and connected to the broader park system through accessible pathways. The project transformed a former waterfront landfill into a healing landscape through naturalization, no-mow areas, and the introduction of native early-successional plant communities, allowing the land itself to participate in the reconciliation narrative.

Delivered through a collaborative design-build process, the Awen’ Gathering Place demonstrates how landscape architecture can support Indigenous-led placemaking, meaningful community use, and ecological renewal.

Collaborative Delivery

The Awen’ Gathering Place was delivered through a highly collaborative design-build process that brought together Indigenous designers, fabricators, contractors, municipal staff, and the United Steelworkers Union, whose conference-based community build initiative supported the project’s delivery. Envision-Tatham played a key role in coordinating site works, managing interfaces between contributors, and sequencing construction activities to support successful implementation. This approach reinforced shared ownership and reflects the role of landscape architecture as facilitator, coordinating diverse teams to deliver complex public spaces.