Plants in this garden share one thing in common: A PROBLEMATIC PAST

What once was a rough patch of grass and concrete in front of the Artscape Youngplace building in the Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood is now a lush garden — with flowering dogwood, a smoke bush and wild dandelions. A small, meandering pathway for people to walk along cuts through the garden.

- EMILY FAGAN

At first glance, the plants don’t appear to have much in common, but small green signs poking out of the soil next to each plant tell the deeper story behind what they all share: a troubling past.

The garden is part of “Botannica Tirannica,” a new exhibit at Koffler Arts located inside Artscape Youngplace at 180 Shaw St., which examines the plants and plant names that have perpetuated and symbolized social prejudices against marginalized groups through a multimedia exhibit with hybrid images of plants created through the use of AI.

Award-winning Brazilian artist Giselle Beiguelman, who created this exhibit, worked alongside Isaac Crosby, a local Black and Ojibwa agricultural expert and knowledge keeper, to include a Canadian colonial context.

Crosby is known for his work revitalizing Indigenous traditional practices like phytoremediation — using plants to clean up contaminated environments — and mentoring Indigenous students through gardening projects across the city.

\Among those, he is the lead Indigenous gardener at Evergreen Brickworks, where he has worked to create Indigenous cultural and green spaces in the once industrialized area.

The garden puts the plants’ problematic names, scientific names and their original Indigenous names on display, such as dieffenbachia, called “dumb cane,” which was used by plantation owners to torture enslaved people, as it makes the mouth swell when eaten. Crosby hopes learning about this history will encourage people to begin using the plant’s traditional Indigenous names, a step, he says, toward revitalizing Indigenous languages and culture.

He took a break from gardening to speak to the Star about his garden and the exhibit, which runs until Oct. 20.