The Hoop Dance Indigenous Gathering Place achieves a vision that celebrates First Nations, Métis, and Inuit culture within the everyday experience of the Mohawk College campus, and that honours 15,000 years of Indigenous history on this territory. Developed through an inclusive and iterative community consultation process and designed holistically with consideration with architecture and site, the HOOP Dance creates a unique outdoor space with layers of meaning woven into the fabric of its elements. It aspires to be a welcoming place for all, respecting our past, present, and future.

Set in the College’s main courtyard, the HOOP Dance Aboriginal Gathering Place was designed with a holistic consideration to landscape, architecture, and the wider context within the college and the city. The design includes five elements: the HOOP Dance Gathering Place open-air pavilion, a fire circle, a water garden, a traditional garden, and a Seven Sisters garden. Its location in the heart of the college’s main quad underscores the importance of Indigenous place making as an agent of Reconciliation. The gardens and pavilion are the result of a collaborative and iterative consultation and design process between Brook McIlroy, Mohawk College, Aboriginal students of the College, and Elders and members of the Six Nations First Nation and Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation Communities.  

The pavilion is inspired by Indigenous concepts of inclusiveness, time as measured by the sun and moon, the Medicine Wheel, and the creation story. The form and construction reference traditional wood fabrication methods, Indigenous material culture, and the layered spatial organization of the Longhouse. Its non-orthogonal, variably canted and dynamic spatial character suggests a structure in motion—expressive of the Indigenous belief in the animate nature of things.