Land Back Camp to open permanent space in downtown Kitchener

A new centre focused on year-round programming and organizing for Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer people is opening in downtown Kitchener.

Willow River Centre is located at 243 King St. East, just down the street from where Land Back Camp first set up in Victoria Park, also known as Willow River Park, three years ago.

“This has always been a dream of ours to have our own building and now it’s finally happened,” Willow River Centre co-director Bangishimo said.

The three-storey centre, complete with two kitchens and a courtyard, will host community events and programming, drum circles, workshops, a community garden, live music, art markets, and cultural teachings.

Organizers say it’s a continuation of the work Land Back Camp has been doing since they first set up a tipii and two tents in the Kitchener park on National Indigenous People’s Day in 2020.

In the years since, they’ve also held space and run programming at Waterloo Park and Laurel Creek Conservation Area.

“Land Back Camp started for a number of reasons, one of them being that we kept seeing our community members struggle for gathering space,” Bangishimo said. “Community members were having to fundraise like $500 just to have a community event in a place like the pavilion.”

“We thought to ourselves, why are our own community members having to pay this fee to gather on our own land in ceremony?”

Willow River Centre is located around a block from the Kitchener Market downtown. (Chris Thomson/CTV Kitchener)

While local cities have since waived rental fees for Indigenous cultural events at Land Back Camp’s urging, organizers say the need for a permanent Indigenous gathering space, particularly for queer youth, was clear.

“We don’t see ourselves represented in any of the other organizations here in town, so clearly we were filling a need for services, for space, for teachings, just connection with our indigeneity and our queerness,” said Amy Smoke, Willow River Centre co-director.

“That really was the foundation that kept us going was the youth, really wanting a space where they can be themselves, unapologetically queer and Indigenous on the land. So being just down the street from where we started is really wonderful, I think there’s a great connection there.”

Willow River Centre co-director Amy Smoke inside the new space on King Street. (Chris Thomson/CTV Kitchener)

Bangishimo and Smoke plan to hold an open house at the new building during the first week of October.

In the meantime, they’re focused on moving in.

On Wednesday, they hung the first piece of art – a portrait of a hawk that campers took care of during their first summer in the park.

Bangishimo explained after the bird landed in the water and got stuck, Wildlife Services asked the campers if they wanted to watch over it while it dried off.

“We had the hawk with us in the tipii for 24 hours and the next day, our campers released it into the wild,” they said. “It was a beautiful moment.”

Later, artist Bruno Smoky spray painted the bird from memory.

“We told Bruno that when the day came when we actually got our own physical space, this would be the first piece of artwork that would go up… so now you actually see it, it’s just hanging right here at the front door.”