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The University of British Columbia
- a place of mind
- The University of British Columbia
- Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm
Blessing of the Land Ceremony with the VNHS Garden Project
In honouring UBC’s place on traditional and unceded Musqueam territory, the UBC Farm aims to provide a site for community engagement, teaching, and research on land-based approaches to Indigenous health and food security. The UBC Farm’s programming for Aboriginal participants supports the objectives of UBC’s First Nations House of Learning in promoting research that will benefit First Nations, Métis, and Inuit People, the specific research goals of the Institute for Aboriginal Health, as well as the university-wide strategy for Aboriginal engagement, as outlined in UBC’s Aboriginal Strategic Plan.
By expanding its existing programs and international Indigenous links, as well as furthering opportunities for community-based research, the farm aims to enhance UBC’s role as an agent of change at the intersection of land, food and community.
A major component of this is taking shape in the Land-Based Indigenous Working Group. Operating with the support of the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund, Kloshe Tillicum, and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, this working group aims to support the future development of Indigenous initiatives at the Farm through engaging with the UBC community and those around the province engaging in work towards Indigenous food security. Based on a series of recent gatherings and design workshops, this working group plans to generate material for use in UBC classrooms, in other communities, and for future planning at the Farm. Upcoming gatherings will engage with more voices that will inform work in Indigenous food security at the UBC Farm and beyond.
Public gathering and design workshop to develop programs with Aboriginal participants at the farm and increase opportunities for community-based learning. Photo: Eduardo Jovel
Members of the VNHS Garden Project team and culinary arts students serving Ahousat First Nation Peggy August's salmon burger recipe at the UBC Farm Joy of Feeding fundraiser
An initiative of the Vancouver Native Health Society, the VNHS Garden project has been growing and preparing food at the UBC Farm since 2005. This project runs a weekly community kitchen with urban Aboriginal participants – including elders – who grow, prepare, and eat food while sharing knowledge and skills with members of the UBC community and beyond. Ceremonies and celebrations throughout the year mark important seasonal shifts in traditional food ways, such as harvest feasts and the use of the cedar smokehouse for fish (part of the project’s work to bridge land and sea). This project has an intergenerational focus, bringing elders and youth together to learn and build important relationships. The project hosts a diverse array of school groups and urban Aboriginal youth organizations at the farm throughout the year. For more information, please see the VNHS Garden project video.
A traditional Maya cooking class led by members of the Maya in Exile Garden Project
This garden was started at the UBC Farm in 2000 by families that left Guatemala in the 1980s during political turmoil. With the Maya culture’s important relationship to agriculture and particularly to corn, family members from this community use the Garden as a way to maintain their relationship to the land and teach their children about the ways of their people. In addition to selling produce and flowers at the UBC Farm Market, members of the Maya Garden educate others about traditional cooking and the use of Maya food production technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. Members of the Maya Garden have also engaged with curricular and academic initiatives at UBC, including courses in digital ethnography, pre-Columbian art history, and Land, Food and Community.
Preparing medicinal herbs for a summer salve-making workshop led by members of the IAH Garden. Photo: Hannah Lewis
The IAH Garden has been based at the farm since 2007. With an emphasis on teaching, learning, and research, it aims to serve educational and research needs related to Indigenous food security while increasing participants’ knowledge and access to both traditional and non-traditional plants. As with the other Indigenous plots at the farm, the IAH Garden is guided by the principle that ‘food is medicine,’ and thus that a holistic understanding of health and healing includes the food that people eat. In addition to its international, community-based research, the IAH Garden engages with numerous regional Aboriginal Youth school and community organizations. Food harvested from the garden is used as part of a monthly community “Feast Bowl” meal, which brings together students, staff, faculty, and members of the public at the First Nations House of Learning Longhouse on campus. The IAH Garden also grows numerous medicinal plants that are native to the region. These native medicinal plants are used in medicine-making workshops and to share traditional knowledge.
The Musqueam community operates a plot at the farm to grow foods and medicines. The Musqueam community is also involved with other Indigenous initiatives at the farm in various capacities, such as providing fish for community meals, building the cedar smokehouse, and sharing medicine-making knowledge. As the farm’s existing Indigenous initiatives grow and as others develop, respecting and involving the Musqueam community remains an integral component.
For more information or to find out how to become involved with Indigenous initiatives at the UBC Farm, please contact Hannah Lewis at: ubcfarm.indigenous@gmail.com
The farm’s Indigenous projects and programming are made possible through long standing relationships with many organizations and individuals, including:
