Finding Flowers presents inaugural Environmental and Urban Change Seminar Series beginning Oct. 6

hands holding plants in a circle
This inaugural Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Seminar
The inaugural Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Seminar Series will begin on Oct. 6

Assistant Professor Lisa Myers‘ Finding Flowers project will present the inaugural Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) Seminar Series, “Miijim: Food as Relations.”

Miijim is a fall and winter conversation series presenting renowned Indigenous, Black and People of Colour food scholars, growers, artists and advocates who will gather virtually from across Canada. Discussions will cover the interconnections between art, earthwork, planting, cultivation and harvesting experiences that decenter colonial frameworks, while thinking through labour and power relations related to food justice in urban and rural communities.

The fall segment of this series will feature conversations on Indigenous food sovereignty; Black and Indigenous food relations; Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee food systems; learning from Manoomin; and art and migrant worker justice. Conversations will continue into the winter semester turning to art-related themes including animal-plant-human relations; food and gardens as remediation; gardens as art as relations; and community food stories.

The series will begin on Oct. 6 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. with a conversation on “Indigenous Food Sovereignties,” bringing together Secwepemc artist, curator and co-creator of Bush Gallery Tania Willard in conversation with Secwepemc food and water advocate Dawn Morrison, founder and chair of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, and Mi’kmaw professor and Indigenous land and food justice advocate Sherry Pictou, to consider their work in defense of Indigenous sovereignties, in relation to the reclamation of land, medicines, foods and plants.

The conversation will be held on Zoom and live-streamed through Facebook. Register on Eventbrite for the Zoom link: https://miijimfoodasrelations.eventbrite.com.

Upcoming fall 2020 events in this series include:

  • Oct. 20: Black and Indigenous Foods in Relation
  • Oct. 27: Learning from Manoomin (Wild Rice)
  • Nov. 10: Haudenosaunee & Anishinaabe Food Systems
  • Nov. 24: Migrant Workers and Food Justice

For any questions contact Finding Flowers research associate Dana Prieto at prietoda@yorku.ca.

The Finding Flowers project is part of Lisa Myers’ EUC graduate class “Food, Land and Culture.”