WINNER OF A 2022 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
?This project is a beautiful and complete expression of the Indigenous program and ethos with which it was designed. In plan and section, its sinuous form acts as a powerful foil to the colonial buildings amongst which it sits. The Mukwa Waakaa?igan Indigenous Centre is appropriately sited at the forefront of the residential school to which it is attached,

creating a powerful building that reorients your spatial experience of the campus while inviting you to a place of learning and healing. Its deep integration into the landscape is exemplary.? ? Betsy Williamson, juror 
The building?s extensive green roof curves to the ground, blurring the line between building and land. The roof and surrounding landscape host plants and fruits that will be harvested for use in an interactive teaching kitchen. This is a hopeful project for a place of painful memories. At the entry to Algoma University stands Shingwauk Hall, an imposing former residential school. In the 19th and 20th centuries, children from 184 First Nations communities across Canada were separated from their families and brought to that institution, where school work, religious instruction, and farm chores filled their days. 
The addition curves in front of a former residential school building at Algoma University, creating a place for truth telling, healing, teaching and learning, cultural preservation and reconciliation.
In 2021, the Children of Shingwauk Alumni...