Decolonizing the Land and Food System: Indigenous Resilience in Times of Crisis

Building Resilient Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond

Webinar: Decolonizing the Land and Food System: Indigenous Resilience in Times of Crisis

The compounded crises of climate change and COVID-19 have widened the inequalities that exist in our already unequal food system. Decolonizing the land and food system is thus a critical strategy for putting economies of solidarity into action. Join Dawn Morrison, Founder, Chair, and Coordinator of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS), Wilson Mendes, LFS PhD Candidate, Media Director of the WGIFS, and xʷc̓ic̓əsəm Garden Coordinator, Angela McIntyre, CSFS Postdoctoral Fellow, and Alannah Young, former CSFS, LFS, and IRP Postdoctoral Fellow, for a panel and discussion on Indigenous food sovereignty and resiliency – during COVID-19 and beyond.

About the Presenters

Dawn Morrison is of Secwepemc ancestry and is the Founder/Curator of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Since 1983 Dawn has worked and studied horticulture, ethno-botany, adult education, and restoration of natural systems in formal institutions as well as through her own personal healing and learning journey. Following the years she spent teaching Aboriginal Adult Basic Education, Dawn has been dedicating her time and energy to land based healing and learning which led her to her life’s work of realizing herself more fully as a developing spirit aligned leader in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement. Dawn has consistently organized and held the space over the last 14 years for decolonizing food systems discourse in community, regional and international networks and has become internationally recognized as a published author. Dawn’s work on the Decolonizing Research and Relationships is focused on creating a critical pathway of consciousness, that shines a light on the cross-cultural interface where Indigenous Food Sovereignty meets, social justice, climate change and regenerative food systems research, action and policy, planning and governance. Some of the projects Dawn is curating include: Wild Salmon Caravan, Indigenous Food and Freedom School and, Dismantling Structural Racism in the Food System.

Wilson Mendes is an Indigenous Afro-Brazilian Indigenous community planner, visual artist, and Indigenous land-based researcher living on the unceded Territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlí̓lwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-waututh) Nations. His work focuses on collaborative community-based approaches toward Indigenous community resilience and wellness through Indigenous food sovereignty and regenerative land-based practices. He is currently the media director of the Working Group of Indigenous Food Sovereignty working alongside the founder and research curator Dawn Morrison. Wilson has a master’s degree in planning with a focus on Indigenous community planning and is currently a Ph.D. candidate with the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on Indigenous land-based pedagogies and Indigenous food sovereignty for urban Indigenous youth.

Alannah Young Leon PhD is a member of the Indigenous Medicine Collective – an urban land-based group of holistic health practitioners and researchers who work with the Indigenous Community Research Partnership initiatives at UBC. Her prior post-doctoral worked with Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems examined how Indigenous Elders applied the land-based health education pedagogies at xʷc̓ic̓əsəm: Indigenous Health Research and Education Garden at UBC Farm, and food sovereignty initiatives in rural BC communities.

Angela McIntyre’s postdoctoral research explores health, wellness and food sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples. Before coming to UBC in 2019, she worked as a health promotion specialist for BC First Nations. From 1993 to 2015, Angela was a civilian peacekeeper, a program officer, policy researcher in the areas of post-conflict peace-building and reconciliation, global health and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Angela is of Cree, Scottish and German heritage, living on the traditional territories of Quw’utsun (Cowichan), SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Peoples (Salt Spring Island).

The Building Resilient Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This webinar series focuses on answering fundamental questions about the resiliency of our food system during and beyond COVID-19.