Release Date: July 5th, 2023
In our second episode on land, co-host Aliyah Fraser sits down with David Skene of Wisahkotewinowak to reflect on how a deeper relationship to the land around us would positively impact our decisions on land use, an often underreported cause of climate change. David says, “When land becomes a place, it is different from space.” Seeing ourselves as not separate but of, in and with the land, is a paradigm shift for white settler society, and speaks to the systems level change, or more specifically, the narrative level change, that this moment is calling us to do.
Find out more about what you heard at the links below.
Cast
Madeline (Maddie) Marmor— Host/Producer
Maddie is a landless farmer born in downtown Toronto. She has been farming for the past 7 years on farms throughout Ontario and has grown food on the current and traditional lands of the Houdensaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, Mississauga, Odawa, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Petun, Saugeene - Ojibiway nations.Over the years she has come to recognize the privilege and political significance of farming on stolen land, knowledge which has informed her dedication to food sovereignty and agroecology. She is a member of the National Farmers Union and sits on the Climate Justice collective for the international social movement La Via Campesina.
Aliyah Fraser — Co-Host/Producer
Aliyah is a Kitchener-based farmer who owns and operates a quarter acre market garden called Lucky Bug Farm on rented land in Waterloo Region where she grows a variety of produce for a small CSA program. The farm operates within the Haldimand Tract in Kitchener, Ontario and is on the traditional territory of the Mississauga, Anishnabeg, Attiwonderonk (neutral) and Haudenoshaunee peoples. She imagines a food system where more people have access to ecologically grown food, where there is less waste and where there's a better understanding of the labour it takes to get food from the farm to the table. Aliyah also has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies in Urban planning from the University of Waterloo. She believes that food and housing are human rights. She lives in Kitchener, Ontario with her partner Thomas and cat Frankie.
luckybugfarm.com | @luckybugfarm
Dave Skene — Guest
Dave Skene is an urban Métis farmer, youth worker and the co-Executive Director for White Owl Native Ancestry Association, where he focuses on Land-based education. In 2015 Dave, along with several other Indigenous community members, started exploring how they could be involved in Indigenous food sovereignty in the Waterloo Wellington region. These discussions led to the formation of the Wisahkotewinowak Growing Collective.