First Indigenous community hub opens in Pembroke, Ont.

The grand opening of Pembroke's first Indigenous community hub was held Saturday.

Located inside the Pembroke Mall and open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., it is being described as a safe space where Indigenous people can gather to connect and reconnect with their culture.

"They wanted a safe space where they could gather, where they could connect with their language, their culture, and also reconnect with the land," said Joanne Haskin, past president of the Circle of Turtle Lodge.

The hub is free for all Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to explore. While being a community gathering space, it also operates as an Indigenous consignment shop, an Internet cafe, and offers mental health and addictions services, and trauma therapy.

"We've gone into the schools and done education that way, but this is the first time that we've actually had our own space to do our own programming in," said Megan Pilon, manager of the new hub.

The hub is a site of comfort for local Indigenous residents. Duane Gastant Aucoin is a member of the Teslin Tlingit First Nation in the Yukon, and has only lived in Pembroke for a short while.

"For us to come and be able to be with other indigenous peoples, it's like a new home here for me and I'm just so happy," he tells CTV News Ottawa.

"It can be pretty lonely being away from home, and so the Algonquin people have been so amazing to me and others who are not from here, they make us feel like this is home."

Haskin says between 8,000 to 10,000 Indigenous people live in the Renfrew County area, adding that a public space such as the new hub has been long overdue.

"The one thing that was lacking was a permanent spot because we tend to forget that a majority of Indigenous people are off the reserve," said Pembroke Mayor Mike LeMay.

The hub is located immediately inside the entrance to the Pembroke Mall. The expectation is that the high foot traffic area will generate new interest in the space.

"This location right at an entrance and with an entrance off the parking lot provided a good opportunity for our customers to be able to come in and see what is going on," said mall manager Jayne Brophy.

Haskin is also hoping the available hub will draw interest from members of the non-Indigenous community to unite groups of people that may have not had the opportunity in the past.

"We're really hoping for the building of authentic relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples," she says. "And the real meaning between that truth and reconciliation."