Restoring indigenous relationship with the land in the city
Like any relationship, this takes time and work.
We now are happy to announce an opportunity to deepen that relationship with the land and this community three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4:00-8:00 pm.
Where: Emmett Avenue Communal Garden, 101 Emmett Avenue (details below)
When: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 4:00-8:00 pm
Details: We'll meet at the Emmett Garden at around 4 and stay there until 5 or 5:30 working in the garden and having an early light supper, then going to the river. Someone will stick around at the garden for people who come a bit later.
NKG will provide some food for a light supper, but since they never know how many will show, it’s always good if you can bring something for yourself or to share. Bring a water bottle and wear long pants with close toed shoes and socks.
LOCATION: 101 Emmett Avenue (near Jane and Eglinton).
Accessible by TTC via buses from Jane Station, Eglinton Station and York University. Check the TTC Trip Planner or Google Maps for directions. Emmett Avenue runs North off of Eglinton, West of Jane. There's a big sign at Eglinton and Emmett saying West Park Health Centre. Turn N on Emmett and go down the hill. Stop at the first parking lot on your left, There is a children's playground across the street on the right. The communal garden is behind a fence just South of the playground, and North of the public washrooms. We will gather in front of it by some picnic tables.
Note that the parking lot closes at 9 pm.
MORE INFO ON NKG AND THE EMMETT COMMUNAL GARDEN:
Naadmaagit Ki Group (NKG) works to restore indigenous responsibilities to the land and water in Toronto. NKG is working with urban indigenous people planting medicines, mound gardening, fighting invasive species, and supporting indigenous cultural learning on the land in the city.
The Emmett Avenue Communal Garden is a cooperative venture involving NKG, the Black Farmers Collective, the Afrocentric School collective, Social Planning Toronto, City of Toronto Parks and Recreation, and communal garden volunteers. Grown communally rather than in individual plots, the garden is used for sustainable food production and distributed to low income families as a contribution to food justice. NKG have been reclaiming the area in an around the Humber (Tanaouate) River, including in this Garden, restoring indigenous responsibilities to the land and water, and supporting indigenous cultural learning on the land in the city. They are growing Three Sisters mounds (corn, beans and squash), a sophisticated and sustainable system that will provide long-term fertility and a healthy diet, in a generational project that will see families taking up responsibility for the mounds for Seven Generations.
"Indigenize or Die" is honoured and excited to be building a collaborative relationship with these front-line warriors who are on the ground, doing the re-indigenizing work about which we have been dialoging.