As farmers and farming-focused organizations, reconciliation can be a complicated topic to grapple with. We acknowledge that agriculture and the colonial land title system have been used as tools of colonization to remove Indigenous peoples from their land and food systems. There are many examples of laws and policies that were designed to hinder Indigenous peoples from growing and provisioning food, and practicing their cultures.
The echoes of these historical realities live on in our laws, biases, and people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. For example, in so-called British Columbia, 95% of land is designated as “crown land”, and most is unceded, while a small amount has been treatied back to First Nations through the court system. We feel that it is important to recognize these truths, as they have greatly shaped our current (agricultural) reality, and set the stage for the repair we need to do now.
We have a lot of work ahead of us to repair the damage that has been done, and it is our collective responsibility to position Indigenous Peoples, ecology, land stewardship, and Indigenous land title and rights at the forefront. This is the only path forward if we are to sustain the Earth’s ecosystems in our rapidly changing climate.
Despite this terrible history and the ongoing effects of colonization, there are Indigenous farmers and food provisioners doing incredible work to heal and feed our communities. We’ve been lucky to connect with some of them through this work.
Three of these people include Leslie Anne St. Amour of RAVEN, Natasha Anderson of Minwaadizi Farm, and Julian Napoleon of Amisk Farm. They led a panel discussion exploring Land Back and Indigenous Food Sovereignty. This panel recording explores these terms and shares ways that Indigenous farmers are accessing and stewarding land towards Indigenous Food Sovereignty (IFS) under the colonial government’s complex system of land title and the ongoing impacts of colonization.
The course will take approximately 2 hours to complete and includes a recording of a webinar from January 31, 2024. Listeners will come away with ways to deepen relationships with the land and support the land back movement. We hope you enjoy this rich and engaging conversation.
