We Will Plant Lodge

Sustainable agriculture has always been a way of life for Indigenous people. However, as colonialism disrupted our traditional foodways, one in three Indigenous people in Canadian urban areas live in food-insecure households and rely on modern agribusiness to provide nutrition, creating an epidemic of food-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. This contributes to poor mental health, lower educational outcomes, and family stress. Our Elders have been telling us the food we eat is killing us. Our community urgently needs to re-establish the connection between our land, food, culture, and identity lost to colonization. Yet, too many Indigenous People do not have access to traditional agricultural and plant knowledge due to the loss of culture through the implementation of the Indian Residential School System and similar methods. While our people were, at one time, the best agriculturalists in the world, colonization has reduced our knowledge base. Since the arrival of colonization and its racist, patriarchal and gendered oppression of women and Indigenous bodies, Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ person’s roles have been marginalized. Pre-contact, traditional agriculture was led by women* with men providing supporting roles. If we return that knowledge to our Indigenous women and gender-diverse people, we will empower them to reconnect with the land and reclaim their place as our traditional agricultural leaders to rebuild resilient food and farming systems. We will (RE)generate our foodways and our health.

Our idea is BIG. It is novel because instead of just addressing the lack of food in Indigenous communities, it addresses the roots of the problem: access to land and knowledge. We do not just want to make a garden. We want to equip Indigenous women with the necessary tools to change the system.

Our solution, We Will Plant Lodge (Ga Gitigemi Gamik), is envisioned as an ecological centre on a permanent Indigenous-stewarded site, where women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ persons can work on the land together in a 12-week immersion program that will help them (re)learn ancestral agricultural methods lost to colonization.

Sustainable agriculture (more recently called permaculture) has always been a way of life for Indigenous People. This project aims to restore this knowledge and reclaim the history, stories, power and significance of Indigenous communities on the land. As most of our communities have moved to a Western food production and procurement model, we need to (re)establish the connection between our land and food.

At We Will Plant Lodge, we intend to grow food as our ancestors did for millennia. We will grow only ancestral seeds as part of the Indigenous seed-saving movement, which links our Nations together by growing each other’s sacred seeds to save the agricultural heritage lost through displacement and land loss. We will also teach modern techniques, such as greenhouse growing and the business of farming, so that participants can be competitive in other markets when they return to their communities.

An important part of the teachings will also centre around food literacy: using the food we grow to improve our health. We will also explore foraging and how to prepare communal foods with elders and community cooks. Indigenous chefs will also be integral in developing new recipes with ancient foods.

This regenerative, holistic way of looking at the ecosystem mirrors how we will build the organization, make partnerships and teach with the physical and mental health of all in mind. In time, the solution will also change the environment into a rich, biodiverse ecosystem that is robust and more resistant to climate change.

This work is invigorating because we are (re)building old ways of doing things. With the guidance of the Seed Circle and the land itself, we will empower Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people to reclaim their place, and we will (re)generate our foodways and our health, making We Will Plant Lodge a model for Land-based Training Initiatives around the world. 

Our solution serves Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people living in Manitoulin Island and the Sudbury district of Ontario, Canada. They are between the ages of 25 and 40 years old. They are looking for a connection to their culture, are interested in environmental solutions, and are interested in a career that allows them to experience the outdoors and work on the land.

Pre-contact, Indigenous food systems and agriculture were led by women. Our ceremonies still celebrate this, but in reality, few women have been able to retain the knowledge to uphold the health of their communities. The current disease and early death epidemic for Indigenous People demonstrates just how catastrophic the fracturing of these ties and erasure of this knowledge has been on our communities. Additionally, during the pandemic, Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people struggled as 48% reported  symptoms consistent with moderate or severe generalized anxiety (compared to 25% of non-Indigenous participants) and 64% reported that their mental health was "somewhat worse" or "much worse" (compared to 52% of non-Indigenous  participants). Research also shows that for many 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people,  intersecting forms of social marginalization and oppression led to  greater social isolation during the pandemic. Our solution allows them  to begin a restorative journey by returning to the land.

Indigenous women hold the land. They hold the seeds and keep the traditional ecological knowledge of our culture. In Canada, less than 11% of women farm, but worldwide, women, especially Indigenous women, are the majority of farmers. We Will Plant Lodge is the first project in Canada to support Indigenous Women to relearn our Traditional Ecological Knowledge to continue our traditional practices.

Each We Will Plant immersion program participant will learn from Elders and Traditional Knowledge Holders about ancestral farming methods that work with the natural environment rather than in opposition. Participants will also learn about modern greenhouse techniques and the business of farming. These skills and experience allow them to work within the agriculture sector and participate in the economy.

Once participants complete the program, We Will Plant Lodge will employ them as farmworkers. This is their opportunity to earn income and apply the knowledge and skills learned to support the planting, harvesting, processing, marketing, and selling of Indigenous products.

Additionally, the participants will be expected to disseminate the knowledge they learned in the program back into their communities in creative ways to “give back” and to be a part of changing how Indigenous people access food. Through their experiences with the program, the women will be encouraged through mentorships to begin a lifelong journey to become the agricultural knowledge holders of their communities.

The solution aims to build the capacity of Indigenous women to reclaim our roles as agricultural leaders in our communities. The solution will allow for the transference of ways of knowing to flow back into communities through women, therefore, realizing an important shift since most agriculture today is controlled by men.

Our solution directly benefits the Indigenous communities on Manitoulin Island. They represent over 45% (5,530+) of the population on the Island and are the most at-risk of experiencing food insecurity in the Province. In 2022, the Manitoulin Food Bank saw a dramatic increase in requests from the community.

As we help participating Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people gain access to land, amenities, and a solid understanding of rebuilding Indigenous foodways, they can produce fresh, healthy food within and for their community. The women in the program will become ambassadors for food justice and lead discussions and implementation of the initiatives they learned to disseminate the traditional knowledge further into the culture to become "knowledge reclaimed."

The food produced by the participants will also allow us to increase the production of culturally appropriate foods for the 13 Indigenous communities on Manitoulin Island. We Will Plant will harvest, process, and distribute the food to Indigenous community members at risk of food insecurity. We Will Plant will also be a source of plants for other communities who can't grow their own using traditional heritage seeds. This increases the availability and access to healthy and nutritious Indigenous foods. In our first year of full operations, we expect to produce 15,000 kg of food to support food security in our community.

As we scale production, we aim to become a local Indigenous food hub or a local Indigenous food distribution program. There is no specific CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for Indigenous communities on Manitoulin Island (or in the Sudbury/Algoma) region.

We Will Plant Lodge's integration of traditional Indigenous governance and decision-making structures and processes with its "Seed Circle" emphasizes community and collaboration. We engage Manitoulin Island community members and integrate their knowledge and feedback into programming.

Beyond the Island, our work can affect change through better policy development and collaborations with government and private organizations. In the long term, we expect our work to influence other organizations and communities, and we aim to become a leader in Indigenous-led agricultural learning across Turtle Island and the globe. 

We Will Plant Lodge is a solution for and by Indigenous women. 

Our Team Lead, Celeste Smith (she/her), has been involved with grassroots, community-based action by sharing her knowledge and providing the tools for Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Celeste is Oneida from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and lives on Manitoulin Island, our solution's target area. As an intergenerational trauma survivor, it is her life's mission to help Women/Gender Diverse People rebuild their connections to the land and their lifeways. Celeste is a seed steward, traditional agriculturalist and former professor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) at Niagara College. Her TEK comes from a strong connection to her family's agricultural traditions and 30 years of personal/community gardening. She continues to educate herself through ceremony and mentorship with traditional healers and agricultural Knowledge Holders from around the world.

As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the food insecurity of the Indigenous community, Celeste began Cultural Seeds   (culturalseeds.com) in 2020 to share her knowledge and provide the tools for Indigenous food sovereignty. Since then, her educational services have been in demand locally and globally. Her work centers on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Land Justice, and Indigenous Human Rights.

Celeste is the Chair of the National Farmers Union International Committee, A member of La Via Campesina North America, A member of the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario and the Northern Ontario Permaculture Institute. 

Recently, Celeste was in Geneva with La Via Campesina, representing the National Farmers Union, and joined other Indigenous women fighting for food sovereignty and justice. She was also an official delegate and presenter at this year's COP 27 in Egypt, as she is a recognized Subject Matter Expert in Indigenous Agriculture and Foodsystems. 

Our solution team also includes the following community members:
-Student Intern/Comms: Kiara Genereaux (Odawa)
-Elder/Business Mentor: Dr. Shirley Cheechoo (Cree)
-Elder/Language Mentor: James Shawana (Odawa)
-Artistic Director: Angela DeMontigny (Cree)
-Policy Consultant, Our Future Ancestors Services LTD: Larissa Crawford (Cree/Metis/Caribbean)
-Legal Council: Yvan Guy Larocque (Squamish Nation), Miller Titerle Law Corporation (Aboriginal Law Specialty)

Our organization and solution are also anchored by our volunteer "Seed Circle" of Elders, Traditional Ecological Knowledge Holders, Mentors, and Local Community members. They oversee and guide our work to serve our community. Other community members, Elders, and Traditional Knowledge Holders have been consulted. They are actively helping to build, plan, and teach the program. We will also continuously evaluate the project and request feedback from the community to improve and ensure we effectively serve and engage the community.

We are currently in the development phase and are about to begin the Pre-building stage of our solution. We seek help with our business model, setting impact goals and metrics, board development, budgeting, financial planning, fundraising, legal and regulatory matters, and decolonizing our governance and organization structures. Through Solve, we hope to connect with partners who can vigorously review our plans to ensure we successfully launch the solution.

Celeste Smith is a resident of Manitoulin Island. She has educated and trained local community members in food security and different aspects of the food system, such as growing and processing Indigenous foods. She also shares her story and advice during speaking engagements on topics such as developing a Cultural Easements and Land Trusts. Celeste also provides the community curated, hands-on, remote tours and learning opportunities. The tours teach participants about TEK, Indigenous science, and treaty history on Manitoulin Island.

Celeste also mentors Sheshegwaning First Nation youth. She teaches them and provides hands-on experience in TEK. They can then apply what they learn to build a community garden and teach others on their reserve, expanding opportunities for more Indigenous, LGBTQS+ youth to contribute to building the local food system.

We are a group of Indigenous women who are quite literally trying to make systematic change for our people through land back - whether it be through growing ancestral seeds, traditional agricultural education, or Indigenous stewarded land trusts. For us, land back does not just mean taking the land back by force; it means taking the land back in the hearts and minds of Indigenous Women - the true keepers of the land. Our solution will advance the collective community's Land Back movement. We are also engaging power holders and the broader society in addressing systemic issues of access to land and access to knowledge while promoting the alternative vision with our solution.

Our solution is engaging settler organizations, public institutions, and the private sector. For example, through a partnership with the Northern Ontario Permaculture Institute, we have gained sector-crossing knowledge, resources, and relationships to advance the movement. Our strategic partner, RavensWing, has also created a Land Trust for We Will Plant Lodge, and we are working together to become the first Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) in Ontario. It will also be the first Indigenous female-led IPCA not affiliated with a band Council.

Additionally, our solution won the i3 Indigenous Innovation Challenge at the Desjardins Cooperathon, the world's largest Social Innovation Challenge.

For the next year, our goals are:  

-To ensure Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people on Manitoulin Island gain access to Indigenous Knowledge Systems and holistic learning.

-To expand the knowledge and confidence of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people on Manitoulin Island around agriculture.

We will achieve these goals by launching the We Will Plant immersive agriculture land-based program's first two cohorts (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024). Participants will learn, train on land, and stay at our on-site accommodations for free.

In the next five years, we aim to increase food security and improve the nutrition of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people and the wider Indigenous community on Manitoulin Island.

We will achieve this by continuing to offer our agriculture land-based program for free each year. By the end of year five, we project 80 Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people will complete the program and participate in the agriculture sector, thereby increasing the productivity of Indigenous traditional foodways in our community and increasing community food literacy as participants disseminate their knowledge and training. We will also achieve our goal by increasing availability and access to traditional Indigenous food by distributing excess harvests and traditional food products throughout Manitoulin's Indigenous community.

Below are a few of the indicators we plan to use to measure our progress toward our impact goals.

Goal: To ensure Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people on Manitoulin Island gain access to Indigenous Knowledge Systems and holistic learning. 

Indicators: 

-Number of agriculture land-based program cohorts delivered

-Number of program participants

Goal: To expand the knowledge and confidence of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people on Manitoulin Island around agriculture.

Indicators: 

-Program completion rate

-Satisfaction rate of program participants in their ability to continue what they have learned in the community

Goal: To increase food security and improve the nutrition of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people and the wider Indigenous community on Manitoulin Island.

Indicators: 

-Number of agriculture land-based program cohorts delivered over five years

-Number of program participants over five years

-Number of program participants who are working in the agriculture sector

-Number of program participants who are applying their program knowledge and skills in the community

-Weight of food harvested and distributed

-Number of Indigenous community members served

Each We Will Plant immersion program participant will pass their newfound traditional ecological knowledge and practices to future generations - healing our communities sustainably and for the long term. In the long term, we expect our solution to impact the food security and food system of our community with the development of the following:

-Indigenous Community Food Literacy: Food literacy is essential to food security - using the food we grow to improve our health. The impacts of colonization have led to many in our Indigenous community not knowing the nutritional value or how to prepare our traditional foods. GGG will invite the Indigenous community to attend food literacy workshops to explore wild foods, foraging, and prepare communal foods with elders and community cooks. Indigenous chefs will also be integral in developing new recipes with traditional foods.

-Local Indigenous Food Distribution: Scaling production on the site could include becoming a local Indigenous food hub or a local Indigenous food distribution program. There is no specific CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for Indigenous communities on Manitoulin Island (or in the Sudbury/Algoma) region.

-Stability of our local food system: The food system gains greater production and processing of culturally acceptable foods. Working in partnership with Indigenous communities, groups, and organizations on Manitoulin Island, the food system also gains increased availability and accessibility of sufficient, nutritious, and sustainably grown food for local Indigenous people throughout the year. We will sell surplus foods via local farmers' markets. We will also reinvest any revenues to maintain infrastructure, train new cohorts of participants, and grow our impact.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), specifically Ancestral farming methods that work with the natural environment powers our solution. The traditional ecological Knowledge practices of the Anishinabe and their neighbours, the Haudenosaunee People, are widely seen as some of the world's most successful sustainable agricultural methods ever developed. 

Our ancestors passed down knowledge of these practices for generations until colonialism disrupted our traditional foodways.

We will use methods now adopted by the modern permaculture movement, such as silvopasture (working with animals to build soil), agroforestry (food forests), mound building, soil sustainability, hand planting and seed saving to build soil and land health, changing the environment into a more rich biodiverse ecosystem that is robust and more resistant to climate change. We will grow only ancestral seeds and become a part of the Indigenous seed-saving movement. We will also teach modern techniques such as greenhouse growing in our four-seasons domed greenhouse to help our students adapt to climate change. 

As an organization, we are asking ourselves how to address food security and traditional food literacy in an Indigenous way: through collaboration with each other and the Earth. Indigenous people are as much part of the land as the land is part of us. We cultivate the land while the land cultivates us. Our food growing practices will adapt to specific, local environments that work with as opposed to against natural processes. In time, these methods will change the environment into a rich, biodiverse ecosystem that is robust and more resistant to climate changes. We hope that these reclaimed methods can further inform others looking for real climate solutions. 

Along with our governing Seed Circle, we continue to build our business by using the Haudenosaunee model of the Two Row Wampum and the Dish With One Spoon Treaty.  By basing our ideals on the Great Law, we  support inclusion and diversity in an Indigenous way, and create a space of true equality. 

As this is a program by Indigenous women and for Indigenous women, we will commit to maintaining a minimum of 80% women as participants, and as staff, including all contract staff and guest speakers.

As more and more Indigenous people reconnect and reclaim their Indigenous culture, there is a demand for Indigenous foods and products and an interest in learning traditional growing methods. At the same time, there is growing public interest and demand for organic foods and gardening.

We Will Plant Lodge's primary service is its 12-week intensive land-based training program for  Indigenous women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ people. We will deliver the program twice a year, in Spring and Fall, at our Traditional Ecological Knowledge centre on Manitoulin Island. In the long term, we plan to add Indigenous agriculture and gardening educational and cultural programming for the wider Indigenous community and the general public.

The organic vegetables, fruits, legumes, herbs, plants, and grains grown and processed by our training participants are our secondary products for our Indigenous community and the public. These products will be distributed to the community. The excess will be sold to the general public via local farmers' markets and, in the long term, at our on-site market and cafe. Food products will also be sold online through our e-commerce site to reach markets beyond Manitoulin Island.

To date, the main sources of revenue for the solution are grants and donations. We plan to continue to pursue grants and donations, but as we grow We Will Plant Lodge, we will add the following revenue-generating components:

-Additional Greenhouse and Gardens:  We will sell surplus produce from the increased production of the additional greenhouse and gardens at local farmers’ markets for the general public.

-On-Site Commercial Kitchen:  The kitchen will allow us to develop on-site Indigenous food products, cooking workshops, and catering services for the general public and corporate events.  

-Maple Syrup Production:  The new component will develop a new food product for us to process and sell.

-Wholesale:  Wholesale distribution deals with other Indigenous women-owned businesses are in development. We will provide the plants they need for their products in the growing Indigenous beauty industry. 

-On-Site Market and Cafe:  The market and cafe will sell fresh surplus produce, processed foods, seeds, and traditional Indigenous crafts at the market for the general public.  

-Private and Academic Workshops and Retreats:  We will continue to facilitate TEK workshops and retreats for organizations hosting professional development activities on our site. We will also actively develop partnerships with colleges and training programs to deliver our curriculum and training on-site and online.

-Tourism:  We will build revenue by offering our tiny house dorms as accommodations. Program participants will use the dorms for free during training. However, when training is not in session, stays at the farm will be offered to visiting academics, teachers, and permaculturalists in the summer for a fee.

The above initiatives will diversify We Will Plant Lodge’s revenue sources and enhance its existing retail and fundraising activities. Reinvestment of these revenues allows for growth, sustained programming, employment of new staff, more participants and empowerment of more Indigenous women.

We have been able to secure financial support from the following organizations:

-Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO)

-Canada Healthy Communities Initiative

-Environment and Climate Change Canada

-NDN Collective

-Green Iglu Foundation

-Desjardins GoodSpark Grant

-Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

-Fair Finance Fund

-RELAY Education 

-Honda Canada 

The program is always well received and we are excited to partner with new folks who want to support our vision.