The Makwa Waakaa’igan Indigenous Centre of Cultural Excellence, located on the Algoma University campus in northern Ontario, will use storytelling to honour the site’s history and survivors. Previously, the property was home to Shingwauk Hall, a residential school that operated between 1875 and 1970.Supplied/Moriyama Teshima Architects
A new Indigenous educational, cultural and historical centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., will teach current and future generations about the area’s past while supporting truth-telling, healing and reconciliation.
Taking direction from the land, and from Indigenous Elders, the Makwa Waakaa’igan Indigenous Centre of Cultural Excellence is a monument representing the land’s past, present and future.
“This project is about storytelling,” says Carol Phillips, partner at Moriyama Teshima Architects, the property’s lead architect who co-created its vision alongside the Hamilton-based and Anishinaabeg-owned-and-operated, Smoke Architecture. “It’s about telling the story of what happened here and telling the future story of possibility.”
Remembering survivors
As the first residential school survivor-led national centre in Canada, Makwa Waakaa’igan, which is located on the Algoma University campus, is being built on the former site of Shingwauk Hall, a residential school that operated between 1875 and 1970. Since its closing, the school has been converted into an exhibit, Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall, that commemorates residential school survivors and displays more than 110 years of history.
The Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), an organization dedicated to the well-being of former Shingwauk Hall students, and Algoma University conceptualized the historic project.
The federal and provincial governments have also contributed funding toward the building. When the project was announced in 2021, the Canadian government invested $7.1-million, while the Ontario government added $5.9-million. In 2024, the province announced an additional $2-million contribution.
On Aug. 24, 2025, a groundbreaking ceremony included residential school survivors, Elders, knowledge keepers and community leaders.
When the 34,000-square-foot centre opens, it will showcase the work of the CSAA, including the history of Shingwauk Hall and profiles of the school’s survivors. It will also serve as the new home for the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre archives and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation’s collection.
“It’s significant in that it’s an opportunity to counterpoint the adjacent former residential school and also realize, many generations later, [Anishinaabe] Chief Shingwauk’s original vision,” says Eladia Smoke, founder and principal architect at Smoke Architecture.
“They took his name and put it on that residential school, but none of his aspirations for children doing well and learning and thriving came to pass in that facility. The hope is that this new facility will make those things happen.”
When designing the centre, the architects drew on a narrative approach that also incorporated the use of traditional Indigenous symbols. For instance, the Indigenous medicine wheel was an important part of the building’s overall design.Supplied/Moriyama Teshima Architects
A healing lodge
In Anishinaabemowin, ‘Makwa’ means bear. For Indigenous cultures, the bear brings medicines and is a healer of the body, mind and spirit. ‘Waakaa’igan’ translates to a den or lodge.
Moriyama Teshima Architects and Smoke Architecture shared a vision to create a place of healing and to take a narrative-based approach to all aspects of the building’s final design.
“The first time we saw the former residential school, it was covered with children’s shoes,” says Ms. Phillips “Eladia placed her moccasins there, and it was such a powerful moment.”
Ms. Smoke agrees about the weight felt from the outset of the project. Her first site visit occurred in 2021, not long after what were believed to be the remains of more than 200 children were discovered at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia.
“We sat down in ceremony around the sacred fire arbor with the selection committee and everybody ended up breaking down into tears,” she says.
Taking direction from the land
Traditional Indigenous symbols alongside a narrative approach influenced the project’s sinuous shape, design and the materials. For example, the Indigenous medicine wheel – which has four colour quadrants representing east, south, north and west – was an important driver in the building’s design.
“East is associated with new beginnings, sunrise and childhood,” says Ms. Smoke, “That direction represents our hopes for the grandchildren of the future. Then, when we think of the west, it is associated with adulthood – taking responsibility and finding one’s place in the community. It’s also a direction that considers our connection to our ancestors. Since in the westerly direction is where the former residential school is and where the new building begins, this is a way of acknowledging the truth of what happened.”
The direction from south to north was also important. To the south of the new building sits Lake Huron and Lake Superior. In Indigenous culture, water is viewed as the element of creation.
“We envisioned the shape of the building as Makwa emerging from the water and moving north,” Ms. Smoke explains. “The gentle rise of the building is meant to be inspired by the sloping backside of Makwa moving through the forest. The idea of the building rising towards the north is that you get up on Makwa’s shoulders and you can see everything.”
To create the building’s sinuous shape, the architects used diagonal glue-laminated timber that laces through the building. This design also represents a tikinagan, a wood board with a moss bag that carries one’s children, symbolizing protection and generational connection.Supplied/Moriyama Teshima Architects
Sweetgrass braids and cradleboards
Sweetgrass is a sacred plant in Indigenous cultures that represents strength and a connection to one’s ancestors and Mother Earth. Its use was often suppressed in residential schools, so the building’s nod to sweetgrass through its sinuous form is symbolic of reconciliation and healing.
“The sweetgrass braid is our representation of reality,” says Ms. Smoke. “It’s an interwoven reality of our hopes for the future, our understanding of the past and the needs of the present.”
The cradleboard, called a tikinagan, is another symbol that inspired the design. The tikinagan is a stiff wooden board with a moss bag that is often secured to the wood with lacing to carry one’s children. It symbolizes protection and connects generations of families in Indigenous cultures.
For the architects, the tikinagan became a symbol of keeping your children safe.
“The tikinagan lacing became another narrative piece,” says Ms. Phillips. “The building is made of steel since we’re in Algoma steel country. It’s meant to support the community and reinforce the local materials but in a very deliberate way.”
To create the sinuous shape, Ms. Phillips says the architects used diagonal glue-laminated timber that lace through the building and also symbolically represent the tikinagan lacings.
Before ground was broken, a robust excavation and discovery was done to make sure the building could proceed as planned. “The land knows what you’re up to and it will support you,” says Ms. Smoke. “That collaborative effort among humans, the land and other life systems is what we want to get back to.”