YA believes that it is our collective responsibility to care for and respect the land that we live on and depend upon for water, food and shelter.
The lands we learn on
We are deeply grateful as an organization and network of farmers to live, work, farm, and grow foods on the unceded and traditional Indigenous lands and territories, including but not limited to: Treaty 7 territory, the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation (Region 3); Musqueam; Squamish; Tsleil-Waututh; Kwalikum; Snaw-naw-as; K’ómoks; Quw’utsun; Ktunaxa; Syilx (Okanagan); Sinixt; Gitxsan; Treaty 6 territory, home of the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibway / Saulteaux / Anishinaabe and Inuit; and Treaty 1 + 2 territory, the traditional lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Assiniboine, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
In this program we provide opportunities to reflect and learn about the history of the land that makes up Western Canada. Given the colonial systems of oppression and degeneration of the land, we have a collective co-responsibility to move forward in truth, in relationship and in appreciation for the land we work and learn on. Read more about how Young Agrarians working on truth and reconciliation here.
To learn more about the indigenous peoples at the farm you are working on visit https://www.whose.land/. We also invite you to watch this video with elder Audrey Logan on indigenous cultivation before the fur trade. You’ll find more resources on indigenous food sovereignty and farming here.
Apprentices tour Lady’s Hat Farm near Halkirk, Alberta. Photo credit: Kevin Kossowan