Abundance Community Farm is located in Agassiz, on the stolen land of Sts’ailes, Cheam, and Seabird Island people. The farm operates based on a community agriculture model that utilizes growing food as a tool for building land-based communities and creating harmony between people and the planet. There are five full time farm residents and about 150 members who visit the farm on weekends to help grow food and build community.
Creating harmonious relationships with the First Nations on whose land we reside and being a good custodian of the land has been part of the mission of the farm residents. Through books, podcasts, documentaries, and more we had gained some understanding about the impact of colonization on Indigenous people.
Last summer, we took our learning deeper by bringing in Pulxaneeks (Pul-ha-neeks) from the Haisla Nation to give us an intensive Indigenous Allyship training. The training was difficult and profound. With her experiential and whole-hearted approach, Pulxaneeks brought all we had previously learned and more into our hearts and bodies. We were guided to a visceral understanding of the impact of the historical and current atrocities done to Indigenous people of Canada.
Since our training with Pulxaneeks, we have done more research on our local First Nations communities, learning what we can about their issues, history, and culture. We are now reaching out to these First Nations communities to see if they are interested in developing a connection with us. After learning what we have about all they have endured, it is tempting to want to “help” them. However, we are mindful not to assume that they want or need anything from us. We are simply reaching out as neighbours to see if there is interest in forming some kind of connection.
Each Saturday morning, before we begin our day of farming with the various farm members who have joined us from the Lower Mainland, we acknowledge that we are on the stolen land of the Sts’ailes, Seabird Island, and Cheam people. Recently, we held a grief ritual at Abundance Community Farm to acknowledge the burial sites of the 215 children Indigenous children that were found near Kamloops. We also recently organized another intensive Indigenous Allyship training for our larger network of farm members, so that we can work together toward right relationship with our host nations.
There is so much that needs to be done for true reconciliation for Canada’s Indigenous people. From what we have learned thus far, we have more hope in the actions we can take at the local levels than we do in what our Canadian government is willing to do to for the people Indigenous to this land.
Along with her in person workshops, Pulxaneeks also does online Indigenous allyship training. She is from the Eagle Clan of the Haisla First Nation with Nuchanulth and Lummi Ancestry. Her path of being a group facilitator, program designer & event producer was sparked 24 years ago & has been applied in a wide diversity of ways throughout her life. Pulxaneeks is a living, loving result of the coastal Indigenous village that raised her & all that survived in the lineage she was born to. She holds her hands up & honours the Elders, Mentors & huge family whose love she is a living result of & the Ancestors whose strength & resilience is flowing through her veins.Find more about her at: https://www.indigenousrelationsconsultation.com/
