From the fall of 2020 to spring of 2021, SOUL hosted an online learning series on the role of horticulture in cultivating social and land equity. 

The field of horticulture directly or indirectly influences almost all urban greenspaces. This influence can be put to work in developing solutions to a variety of issues:

• Over half of the Indigenous people within Canada live in urban communities and most have little or no access to land and greenspaces.
• Food insecurity is rampant within Canada and particularly affects racialized communities, the majority of whom do not have access to land to grow food for themselves, or to grow and sell food within the community.
• The broad displacement of native plant species has widely recognized ecological impacts, especially for pollinator populations. Their displacement also has cultural implications for the Indigenous Peoples who have lived in relationship with those species for millennia.
• The resources consumed in our projects are sourced somewhere. Learning about their sourcing and lifecycles can allow us to influence landscapes beyond the boundaries of our project sites.

The sessions were recorded and can be accessed at the links below:

October 8th: Working from Where We Are An overview of some of the ways that horticulture, landscaping and land care intersect with and can support social justice and equity efforts

November 5th : Urban Green Space and Land Access for Indigenous and racialized peoples and across socioeconomic spectrums. Presented by Isaac Crosby, Lead Hand in urban agriculture at the Evergreen Brick Works.

January 7th: Food Access and Sovereignty in the Urban Landscape Presented by Cheyenne Sundance of Sundance Harvest

February 11th: Cultural values and how they frame horticultural norms  Presented by Aliyah Fraser, Lorraine Johnson and Tiffany Traverse

March 11th: Cultivating awareness within the land care and horticultural industry Presented by Sundaura Alford-Purvis of SOUL 

April 8th: Cultivating Diverse Relationships. Presented by Sundaura Alford-Purvis of SOUL

Please help us spread the word about this series by sharing it with your contacts and horticultural network.