Tucked away in a remote section southwest of York University Keele campus and along the Black Creek Watershed is a 2,000 square feet of land devoted to regenerative urban agriculture. Named after maloca, a traditional, large, communal, and spiritual longhouse used by Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, the Maloca Community Garden at York University functions as an essential educational space that provide opportunities for land-based learning, community care, and regenerative food system development.
What has begun as a community garden planted by students in the past has been re-established as a living laboratory within the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change to collectively practice sustainability and food systems transformation. A strategic university funding initiative over the last three years enabled this re-establishment and core infrastructure.
Maloca is accompanied by the rich historical landscape of the Indigenous past, and Indigenous ecological knowledge and leadership in the present. Just south of the garden, archeology has uncovered the remnants of a longhouse settlement dating back to the 15th century, confirming the area as part of Wendat history. This rich history informs how Maloca understands its responsibilities to the land today. Maloca aims to embody the understanding that the land acknowledgement carries meaning when paired with sustained action. Maloca’s commitment to regenerative agriculture has now emerged as one way Maloca contributes to truth and reconciliation commitments, as well as climate care and responsibility.
“Community, students, staff, and Director, Phyllis Novak, have been mentored by Two Spirit Métis Earth worker, Joce Two Crows, of Sweetgrass Roots Collective. Together they have creatively transformed Maloca into a place where traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge (TEK) and practices are meaningfully incorporated into design and operation. While continuing the legacy of the community gardens, with over twenty small plot, Maloca has created two communal growing fields of one-half acre.”
The South Field centers Three Sister Planting–a form of Indigenous growing ‘technology’ rooted in companion planting and reciprocity. At the heart of South Field, a circle of locally grown Wendat sunflowers (aka Cup Plants) serves as a focal point, encircled by ceremonial tobacco and planting mounds that carry both ecological and social significance. The design of the North growing field aims to reflect designs found on pottery discovered at the site.
The regenerative gardening approach embedded in agroecological principles is deeply tied to learning and research. OASIS Ontario, led by Indigenous soil scientist Dr. Gilles Lapointe, has engaged with Maloca and Conestoga College in Kitchener on a research project testing a 7-step protocol to regenerate the soil, proving its impact for healthy garden and farm production. He often reminds Novak that climate change has to start with the soil, attending to its remediation and restoration. This project continues until December of 2026.
Student involvement is at the core of daily life at Maloca. Every growing season, York community is engaged through paid work-study placements, curriculum and program engagements, research projects, and volunteering opportunities. Students contribute labour, ideas, and community building. For some students, Maloca is a first tangible encounter with regenerative farming as local climate action, shaping how they understand sustainability beyond the classroom.
Community partnership
Maloca’s impact extends beyond the garden through a growing network of partnerships. By collaborating with the Black Environmental Initiative (BEI), young black and brown emergent growers have been introduced to regenerative practices through BEI’s Roots and Resilience summer program launched at Maloca in 2024, promoting a culture of leadership facilitated by equity-based knowledge sharing. Other partners including Afro-Tropical Market Garden Plus have been engaged with the garden in leading workshops focused on food and medicine-making, expanding Maloca’s role as a cultural and educational hub at York.
Food sharing
Food sharing is one of the most visible ways Maloca weaves land stewardship into community care. During and after the growing season, harvest of the communal fields are shared with participants and offered through weekly Free Farm Tables, hosted at EUC, offering food and vegetables to students. They become moments of connection where students, staff, and community members pause, talk, and build relationships around food and how it grows in garden.
Multigenerational learning
Maloca’s contribution to well-being extends far beyond the provision of nutrition. Through collaboration with organizations, including the Canadian Mental Health Association, the garden hosts seasonal mood walks, fungal forays, and land-based gatherings that connect environmental awareness with mental health for individuals and community. Families visit regularly, making Maloca Gardens one of the few truly multigenerational environments on York’s campus, where learning unfolds naturally through observation, participation, and care.
Maloca spends the winter months processing teas, seasonings, seeds and making salves to share with the broader community. Maloca Makings begins its weekly indoor program with seed planting as of Feb 25-April 15, Wednesdays 4-6pm at HNES in the Student Lounge, room 136. This program is open to everyone. We hope you will grow with us this coming season!
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Article written by Meetkumar Patel, Special Projects Assistant at the EUC Research Office, in consultation with Phyllis Novak, Director of EUC’s Maloca and HNES Native Plant Gardens. For more information, visit the Maloca Community Garden website on their upcoming events, as well as ways to participate or volunteer in planting and harvesting activities.