Canada: two Anishinaabeg farmers are decolonizing Toronto’s hydro fields
Under the transmission towers of Malvern and Flemingdon Park, Indigenous agricultural knowledge is being shared with communities that need fresh food
By Sid Naidu
Photography by Sid Naidu
The Narwhal
Jan 4, 2024
Excerpt:
In the Finch and Gatineau corridors running parallel to each other between Thorncliffe Park and Scarborough, two Indigenous farmers and their gitigaanan are bringing traditional agricultural practices back to Treaty 13 and Williams Treaties territory. Gitigaan means “little farm” in Ojibway and both Malvern Urban Farm in Scarborough and Flemo Farm in North York’s Flemingdon Park represent a chance for Toronto’s hydro fields to become sites of reconciliation.
Led by Isaac Crosby and Charles Catchpole, these two small produce plots are part of a movement to decolonize food systems across Canada and the world. The focus isn’t just on food security, or reliable and affordable access to food, but food sovereignty: the right for people to create their own agricultural systems and to access healthy, culturally appropriate foods grown sustainably. It’s a term coined in 1996 by La Via Campesina, a global movement of farmers, Indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers.
