New tipi for Nipissing

There’s a new tipi on campus, a place for teaching, learning and community-gathering.

On Friday, June 17, Nipissing will host a small celebration at the new tipi to mark National Aboriginal Day, including a cultural teaching shared by Cindy Hare followed by tea and bannock for everyone.

The 24-foot tipi, created by Sumac Creek Tipi Company in Serpent River First Nation/Cutler, Ontario, consists of a number of long, shaved balsam poles and treated and sewn canvas.  It sits in the B-wing courtyard, where Jeff Jacobs, who constructed it for Nipissing, raised it with the staff and summer student employees from the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives and Summer Aboriginal Education Programs this week. He also provided cultural teachings about the tipi.

“Traditionally a home, this will be a place for everyone,” said Tanya Lukin-Linklater, Director of the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives.  “It’s intended for intergenerational community - students and their families, Elders and community members - to gather and learn with one another.”

The tipi will be a place for experiential learning, especially in relation to Indigenous knowledge, which includes learning from Elders and community knowledge keepers. It will also be an alternative classroom space for Nipissing’s Summer Aboriginal Education Programs. 

“There are specific teachings about the symbolism and meaning of the tipi for Anishnaabe, Cree and other Indigenous peoples and we will begin to learn more about these teachings over time,” said Lukin-Linklater. “We also see the tipi’s structure as a symbolic representation of the core principles of our practice and approach, which centre on reciprocal, balanced and responsible relationships with students, families and communities.”

The tipi will remain up until the fall.  It will be taken down for winter, and will rise again in the spring.