Paralleling the CAFS conference theme of Reckonings, Reimaginings, and Reconciliations, Within and Through Food Systems, our three-day arc of plenary events is intended to ground these complex ideas in specific food systems realities. Our aim is to move from thinking to doing, and from doing to transformation. We anticipate these events will be both challenging and inspiring, occasions to reflect on where we are and to identify ways to respond purposefully to inequity and oppression within and through food.
DAY 1 – MAY 30, 2023 – RECKONING
Lake Superior Our Helper
On Day 1, the reckoning plenary will include a screening of the documentary, “Lake Superior Our Helper: Stories from Batchewanaung Anishinabek Fisheries,” followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and participants. The film follows Chief Dean Sayers through a series of conversations to reveal the cultural, political, and ecological relationships surrounding the community’s fisheries, sharing the messages of Elders, youth, fishers, community leaders, and their visions for the future. It also documents how fishing has changed over time, conflicts with the state around management and regulation, principles of Indigenous law, and the culture and ceremony that are deeply embedded within fishing practices. The film and discussion will bring us face to face with the contemporary and past tensions around traditional fisheries, including the seemingly irreconcilable disconnects between Indigenous foodways and settler colonial governance. Members of the Batchewana First Nation, filmmaker Sarah Furlotte, and producers Kristen Lowitt and Charles Levkoe will take part in the plenary.
Financial support for this session was provided by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
DAY 2 – MAY 31, 2023 – REIMAGINING
Reimagining food, food systems, and food studies
On Day 2 we will move from what is to what could be, reimagining how our cross-disciplinary, cross-community, and cross-sector subject can become an opportunity for radically re-making the ways we examine, understand, and talk about food. What alternative ontologies and epistemologies can be deployed? What assumptions and habits can be challenged? What new forms of wondering, care, and empathy can be established? This plenary will take the form of a round table discussion with six emerging food scholars whose work represents new ways of thinking, doing, and communicating food systems work. They include Stephanie Chartrand (University of Toronto), Laurence Hamel-Charest (Université du Québec à Montréal), Raihan Hassen (University of British Columbia), Anson Hunt (Carleton University), noura nasser (Concordia University), and Kelsey Speakman (York University). Each participant will share insights from their own practices and perspectives, prompting audience members to think about ways in which they too have or could eventually reimagine their own food systems work. A subsequent conversation between the panel and audience will be facilitated by conference co-Chair and freelance academic, David Szanto (University of Ottawa).
DAY 3 – JUNE 1, 2023 – RECONCILIATION
Reconciling Food Systems
The Day 3 plenary will take form as a 90-minute journey into reconciliation through dialogue and planning, facilitated by Charlene Seward. This workshop will create space for participants to develop a deeper understanding of reconciliation and its role in rebuilding Indigenous food systems. Participants will be invited to join brave conversations around colonization, the Indigenous worldview and their role in reconciling food systems. In addition, participants will explore opportunities to support reconciliation through SMART action planning and build connections to support their journey. This workshop addresses challenging topics, including the Indian Residential School system, colonization, and the intergenerational impacts of these systems on First Nations communities and food systems. A group of 40 conference participants will take part in a set of core activities while the balance of attendees will bear witness, reflect, and engage in a parallel process. A registration process will take place closer to the conference dates for those wishing to be part of the core activities, with priority given to Indigenous conferenciers. We will work to co-create a brave space for learning, sharing and growing.
CAFS thanks the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences for its generous financial contribution to this workshop.
Charlene Seward is a proud member of the Squamish Nation with close family ties to the Snuneymuxw Nation. She brings a decade of experience in Indigenous engagement and reconciliation-focused work, with a passion for developing meaningful relationships that support change at multiple levels. Charlene is the Indigenous Foodways Community Outreach Facilitator at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems and an experienced facilitator who frames all her work with a lens of reconciliation and decolonization. Charlene has worked with government agencies, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and corporations across the country, building capacity for tangible change.
Follow us!