Learning sustainability through an international experience with an Indigenous lens
By Nadine Roach
SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – Twelve students in the CESD 3406: Sustainable Indigenous, Rural and Community Development course, attended Slow Food International’s Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy September 20-28 as part of an international learning experience at Algoma University (AU), funded by the Government of Canada’s Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) fund.
Rooted in the “Good Clean and Fair” mantra, Slow Food’s Terra Madre (Mother Earth in Italian) event parallels values and principles with Anishinabek worldview. Mino Bimaadiziwin – Living the Good Life – corresponds with this mantra believing that all things, good, clean and fair, are intrinsic to the fabric of life, and living in harmony and balance with Shkaakaamikwe (Mother Earth)
Students of diverse backgrounds, heritage and educational pursuits came together to learn about sustainability through an international experience with an urban and rural Indigenous lens.
As a prelude to the mobility experience for the CESD 3406 course, students were tasked with literature readings and pre departure reflections and asked to immerse themselves into self-reflections based on what they were excited about, their fears and worries and what they hoped to achieve while participating in this event, assessing their innate values as a response to the concepts of food sustainability.
“It’s hard to put into words how incredible our trip to Italy for the Slow Food ‘Terra Madre’ events was,” said Megan McGuire, graduating student of AU from Batchewana First Nation. “It was so inspiring and exciting to be in the presence of experts and activists from all over the world coming together to work towards the common goal of good, clean, and fair food for all. Not to mention all the fun we had creating lifelong memories as a group!”
Focusing on the richness of cultural foundations and defending regional traditions, Terra Madre modelled itself after an event in 1995 after a chain restaurant sought to place itself in the heart of the historical and iconic Italian Steps in Rome. Instead of an aggressive protest, the locals began bringing and serving traditional foods – “a big bowl of penne pasta and shared it with the crowd that gathered, chanting: ‘We don’t want fast food. We want Slow Food!’”
That gathering was the birth of the Slow Food movement. https://slowfoodusa.org/history/
There are many worth movements on Turtle Island that passionately pursue equitable space for similar principles highlighted in the Slow Food Movement event attended by the CESD students.
Food Sovereignty Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods. More importantly, it is the right to define and control our own food and agriculture systems, including markets, production modes, food cultures, and environments. (https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/food-sovereignty-canada)
Within the Anishinabek Nation, member First Nations and Indigenous people abroad continue to demonstrate their knowledge, intelligence and practices that are participant to the food movement. These principles have been threaded and weaved in the land-based fabric highlighting language as the foundation to this inherent lifestyle. Earth as relative, rather than resource is the fundamental virtue imbedded in feeding spirit, feeding life, Mino Bimaadiziwin – Living the Good Life.
Just as the efforts of the activists on the Italian Steps in Rome, Anishinabek People sought to protect our water that held the fish, grew the wild rice, quenched the thirst, and healed us all. These life-giving principles and laws were led by young and old alike such as, Josephine Mandamin-baa, previous Anishinabek Nation Chief Water Commissioner and Autumn Peltier, activist, and current Anishinabek Nation Water Commissioner keeping the importance of our waters and the food it sustains at the forefront.
In Garden River First Nation, the “Ketegaunseebee Food Sovereignty Project” was led by Aaron Jones and Angela Belleau of Garden River First Nation. The idea was conceptualized by Aaron to address food availability and accessibility by gifting community members with perennial food-producing plants such as fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. Along with gifting plants, this project aims to educate the community about growing food and inspire others to think about the future of food in Garden River. https://canadianroots.ca/grantee-highlight-ketegaunseebee-food-sovereignty-project/
Responding to Q&A form interview in February 2022, with CREation Community Grants, Jones stated, “While the goal of this project is to provide community members with access to the long-term food supply, we hope that we inspire those to learn more about the benefits of growing food, eating locally and taking action.”
Another international movement La Via Campesina, a global peasant movement created in 1993 in Mons, Belgium coined the term food sovereignty, “Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”
Globally in 180 countries, they fight injustice in the food system protecting and advocating for farmers rights, rural women, agricultural workers, and Indigenous communities.
Grassroots movements have always been the cohesive network that weaves and grows sustainable communities and food sovereignty. Lifecycle gatherings contributed to this culture with food being at the centre of births and deaths, feeding our bodies, soothing our emotions, feeding our spirits, and bringing us to new life events in between. Family recipes were made, gardening tips and practices were shared, hunting and fishing stories told. All of these are the common threads are at the centre of the community. Beginning on the land, and served at the table, Indigenous and people of the land have always practised slow food principles as these were at the heart of a good life, cultivating Good Clean Fair educating the world based on pillars of biodiversity, education, advocacy.
This trip was funded through Global Skills Opportunity (GSO), the Government of Canada’s national outbound student mobility pilot program, which aims to empower post-secondary institutions to increase the participation of Canadians in international learning opportunities — especially students with disabilities, Indigenous students and those from low socio-economic backgrounds who have traditionally faced barriers to participation Global Skills Opportunity is an integral component of the Government of Canada’s International Education Strategy and is administered jointly by Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada. The Terra Madre experience was Algoma’s first international learning experience since physical mobility was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.