Doors open 6:30 pm. 7:00pm sharp to 9:30 pm. Please arrive early!
$15 suggested donation
This goes to reimburse guest facilitators/speakers for their travel and other expenses.
Students/unwaged PWYC. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Following on our April session's exploration of the Indigenous basis for restoring balance with urban landscapes, in this next session we look at planting seeds literally and metaphorically.
Doug Anderson from Naadmaagit Ki Group (NKG) returns, joined this time by guest facilitator Moyo Mutamba. Moyo adds his own experience with starting Ubuntu, a learning village in Zimbabwe, to help us develop plans for taking action in Toronto around re-indigenizing the land.
How do we plant "seeds of transformation"--the material and spiritual connections with the land that we need for our ongoing wellbeing and survival?
As we learned in the last session, an indigenous sense of land is about more than soil, plants and water. It is an expansive sense of place. It is a sense of relatedness to all beings of that place, from mineral to human, from Earth to sky. It embraces everything, both seen and unseen. It requires a consideration of those beings who came before, and those who will come after us.
Guest Facilitator Moyo Rainos Mutamba, MSW, RSW, PhD Candidate
About Ubuntu Learning Village in Zimbabwe
Background
Doug is a founder of Naadmaagit Ki Group (NKG), which works to restore indigenous responsibilities to the land and water in Toronto. NKG is working with urban indigenous people planting medicines and mound gardening, fighting invasive species, and supporting indigenous cultural learning on the land in the city. Doug took us on a visual and narrative journey along the part of the Humber River where this work has been taking place. We were challenged to ask:
● What are some of the implications of having an indigenous relationship to land in urban settings?
● How does the restoration of this relationship relate to reconciliation, decolonization and reindigenization?
● What are some of the exciting possibilities and challenges?
Drawing on previous sessions and the collective wisdom of all present we focussed on connecting to our creative spirits and in small groups we strategized on concrete actions we can take in this time and on this land to indigenize. Please see below for a graphic record of the session and a transcription of the ideas we generated.