The 18th annual BC Food Systems Network Gathering will be July 15 – 17, 2016 in Syilx Territory at the En’owkin Centre near Penticton, BC
Each year since 1999 the BC Food Systems Network has gathered somewhere in BC to share knowledge, experience, and wisdom from the grassroots. This annual Gathering is a celebration of our food systems. Gathering together connects and re-energizes some of the amazing people around BC and across Canada working on food security and food sovereignty.
The BC Food Systems Network Gathering blends plenaries, workshops, and presentations with unstructured time and space to encourage formal and informal sharing, socializing or quiet contemplation. The purpose of the Gathering is to bring people together to share their experiences and initiatives, to build new relationships and to strengthen existing ones. The Gathering draws on the wisdom and expertise that exists within the Network and broader community.
This year the theme of the Gathering is Reconciling Cultures and Re-connecting Foodscapes: Renewing Collaboration Within and Between Peoples. The Gathering will be an opportunity for various cultures to come together with the Syilx and other Indigenous people to explore together what it means to truly reconcile with the first peoples of the land and water. We will also dive into what it means to reconnect with and honour the foodscape: the lands and waters that are so vital to our food systems and community well-being.
The location of the Gathering in the traditional territory of the Syilx People, at the world- renowned En’owkin Cultural Centre. This is a very deliberate choice to further strengthen our relationship with Indigenous people and to explore what it means as individuals and as a Network to decolonize our world-views and practice in order to respond to the challenge to all Canadians to reconcile with this country’s first peoples. Many of the presentations, from plenaries to presentations and workshops, will be led by Indigenous people. The schedule of events at the Gathering can be found here.
For more information and to register, please visit the Network’s Gathering page. Registration deadline is June 30th.
