For Us, By Us Farm-Based Education:
Land, Language, and Liberation
Wednesday Dec 1, 2021
12:30 – 2:00pm ET
Zoom meeting
This is a funder only event
Register Here (*required)
Co-sponsored by Engage New York & Neighborhood Funders Group
Most educational and training spaces in America are still dominated by white culture, and often also by white-bodied instructors. This is particularly true in the food and farming sector.
Unlivable wages, gender and race bias, harmful work cultures, and exploitative apprenticeships are just a few of the barriers to entry for beginner BIPOC, queer and trans farmers, especially in rural spaces.
Join CFF to hear from three educational programs that are intentionally rooted in community and culture to flip this dynamic on its head. Food and economic sovereignty is necessary to address the systemic inequities their communities suffer — the Akwesasne Mohawk community for Akwesasne Freedom School; low-income BIPOC communities for Farm School NYC; and the queer community for Rock Steady Farm.
These organizations share an insistence on curricula defined, developed and taught for their communities, by their communities. They are committed to increasing their communities’ autonomy, agency and representation in farming and land stewardship, and they know the harm that can happen when those efforts are led by organizations and individuals who don’t share their culture or relate to their lived experiences.
This session is designed to be different than other briefings you may have attended. This session will reflect the participatory, relational exchange that all three organizations center in their educational approach, so please come prepared to speak, listen and share. We will explore how our stories influence our approaches to land, language and culture as touchstones in the learning spaces we create.
You will come away knowing:
- How Indigenous communities can resource their own educational institutions, rich with their own language and wisdom, given the lack of access to resources, infrastructure and land
- What systemic issues prevent the education and inclusion of marginalized people within the farming sector, and how to resist them
Join CFF to share an experience with these three organizations. Speakers include:
- Elvera Sargent, Akwesasne Freedom School
- Frances A. Pérez-Rodríguez, Farm School NYC
- Onika Abraham, Farm School NYC
- Amara Ullauri, Rock Steady Farm
- Maggie Cheney, Rock Steady Farm
- D Rooney, Rock Steady Farm
More about the presenting organizations
The Akwesasne Freedom School (AFS) emerged as a center of Mohawk cultural resurgence in 1979 and continues to play a critical role in revitalizing a rich and diverse language and culture within the community of Akwesasne. It is a model of self-determination and best practices in language and cultural revitalization. AFS provides Mohawk immersion education, beginning each day with the Thanksgiving address, which forms the foundation of their culturally-rooted curriculum.
Rock Steady Farm is a Queer owned and operated cooperative vegetable farm, rooted in social justice, food access and Queer and Trans farmer training. They run a 500 person sliding scale CSA and sell wholesale to frontline community orgs. Additionally they provide a safe and dignified workspace for LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC people on their farm, while also providing educational opportunities, tours and events for the community.
Farm School NYC co-creates space for sharing knowledge about sustainable agricultural practice, and then embed justice-seeking farmers into every corner of our food system to help create the change we need to see.