Beyond the river: The secrets growing in Gabriel Dumont Park

Most people come to Gabriel Dumont Park for the river.

They take in the view of the South Saskatchewan, walk the trails and enjoy the scenery at one of Saskatoon’s familiar green spaces.

Kendall Hanikenne was looking at something much closer to the ground: a weed.

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He stopped beside a cluster of green along the edge of the path. Joggers and cyclists passed by without a second look as Hanikenne crouched down and pointed to the leaves.

“A lot of the plants that we overlook are the ones that we think are weeds,” he said, identifying dandelion, broadleaf plantain and shepherd’s purse.

Most of us see dandelions as pesky weeds. Kendall Hanikenne sees a plant that can be used in its entirety for a variety of purposes. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

A walk through Gabriel Dumont Park with Hanikenne changes the way the landscape looks. The grasses and shrubs along the trail are no longer just part of the scenery. Some were used for food. Some for medicine. Others for making things.

For Hanikenne, those connections to the land go back generations.

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A Michif land-based educator, Hanikenne recently accepted a position as Métis culture and language teacher at Westmount Community School. He is still learning to speak Michif fluently, but his interest in plants and the land started when he was young.

“My uncle gave me and my brother our first piece of rat root,” he recalled. His uncle taught them how it could help with colds, soothe their throats and kill bacteria.

“From that moment on, I knew that plants were there to help us and to support us.”

That lesson stayed with him.

Now, when Hanikenne walks through a park, he notices things many people pass by.

Wild roses are often used to make tea. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Every few metres, something catches his attention.

A patch of yellow flowers along the trail turns into a lesson about mustard. The plant carried practical uses for previous generations. Hanikenne said his grandfather used it to make warming poultices when someone needed relief for sore joints or a congested chest.

“If you actually eat the leaves, it’s quite spicy,” Hanikenne said.

Wild mustard looks pretty, but it comes with a bit of a kick. The plant tastes much like Dijon mustard. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Not far away, Hanikenne stopped beside goat’s beard, a plant that looks like an oversized dandelion.

“They use that in dyeing and tanning hides or fabrics,” he said.

His next discovery would have looked unremarkable to most people.

“This one is called lamb’s quarters,” he said. “It’s wild spinach.”

The plant is high in calcium and vitamin K, he explained, and it is also quite tasty. The same is true for dandelions.

“The whole plant is edible,” Hanikenne said. “Many of your salads at the supermarket have dandelion in them. Just look at the ingredient list.”

You can make an entire salad following a walk in Gabriel Dumont Park. Kendall Hanikenne pointed out wild spinach growing near the walking path. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

The discoveries kept coming as Hanikenne kept looking.

“It’s just nice to kind of walk through and kind of keep our eyes peeled,” he said. “There could be one plant out of a whole field that’s different than what you’ve seen before. You just never know what’s going to pop up.”

He explained that learning about the land isn’t something that happens all at once.

“You’re never going to learn anything in one day. Listen to the lessons that everybody gives you, even the ones that are nonverbal, because those are the ones that teach you the most.”

That approach now shapes his work with students.

“It’s OK to be still and be calm and learn from the things that are around you,” he said. “The best classroom has no walls.”

Hanikenne said western goat’s beard, which resembles a large dandelion, has traditionally been used in tanning and dyeing of fabrics. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

While the land provides food, medicine and cultural knowledge, Hanikenne said it also provides moments of humour.

Highbush cranberries, for example, have a reputation for announcing themselves before they are served.

“When you’re cooking them, they smell a lot like stinky socks,” he said with a laugh. “If you’re walking into a house where it smells like stinky socks, they’re like, ‘Oh, who’s cooking cranberries?'”

But curiosity needs to be balanced with care. Many useful plants have poisonous lookalikes, which makes learning how to properly identify them important.

“You’ve really got to be careful what you take and just do a little bit of reading,” Hanikenne explained.

Kendall Hanikenne pointed out some almonds growing within the park. He is unsure if they have grown naturally or were planted by the city. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Harvesting plants also comes with responsibilities.

Before gathering plants, Hanikenne said he offers a prayer, thanking the Creator for the gifts and knowledge the land provides. Speaking only about his own practice, he said people should follow the cultural protocols of their own communities.

Respect can also be shown through simple actions.

“The first thing is, pack out what you pack in,” he said. “Leave the spaces that you go into like you’ve never been there, or even in better shape than before you came.”

That same care applies to the plants themselves.

Hanikenne said sweetgrass has become increasingly difficult to find because of the way it is being harvested, often being pulled out by the roots.

Instead, he said it should be cut cleanly with scissors or a sharp knife, leaving the roots intact so the plant can continue growing.

Saskatoon berries grow in abundance in Gabriel Dumont Park. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

By the time the walk ended, Gabriel Dumont Park looked the same as it had at the beginning. The river still moved past the trail. People still walked and biked through the park. The trees still stretched above the path.

But after seeing the park through Hanikenne’s eyes, it was harder to see it as just a place to walk through.

The plants growing along the trail were no longer just weeds or background greenery. They were food, medicine, materials. Reminders that the land continues to offer things, even in the middle of the city.

Sometimes, Hanikenne said, all it takes is slowing down long enough to notice.

A walk through Saskatoon’s Gabriel Dumont Park with Michif educator Kendall Hanikenne reveals the food, medicine and traditional knowledge growing along the trails. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)