Join the Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks and Fresh Roots for a virtual screening of the documentary Food For The Rest of Us and an online panel discussion, Decolonizing Urban Foodscapes.
- Food For The Rest of Us: virtual film screening. April 25th to May 1st (anytime)
- Decolonizing Urban Foodscapes: online panel discussion event. Thursday, April 28th 7:00 – 8:30pm. Featuring film participant Maurice (Eric) Person, Melissa West Morrison, Ga’axsta’las 琪琪, Senaqwila Wyss, & Alisha Lettman
About Food For The Rest of Us:
The film follows four unique individuals leading the way to a sustainable, equitable, and innovative food system; an Indigenous-owned, youth-run organic farm in Hawaii, and Black urban grower in Kansas City who runs a land farm at East High School, a female Kosher Butcher in Colorado working with the Queer Community and an Inuit community on the Arctic Coast who are adapting to climate change with a community garden in a small geodesic dome. Watch the trailer here.
Tickets
Tickets by donation (tax receipts issued for donations $10 and over): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/food-for-the-rest-of-us-screening-conversation-tickets-300231078237
All proceeds from this virtual event will fund the screening and panelist honorariums in addition to supporting the work of Fresh Roots and the Vancouver Food Networks.
Door prizes to be drawn during the April 28th panel discussion generously sponsored by Ubuntu Canteen!
You will be provided with:
- A unique link for viewing the documentary (available for 7 days between April 25th and May 1) from the comfort of your home
- Zoom link to the online panel on April 28th, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Panelists
Maurice (Eric) Person
Maurice is a Black-Indigenous farmer who was born and raised in Oathe, Kansas. His grandmother was a Choctaw-Kickapoo woman and his grandfather was a share crop farmer. Under the guidance of his grandparents, he learned about the intense healing that can happen when you get your hands in the dirt and grow your own food. He now lives in Atlanta, GA and works with Community Movement Builders, a not-for-profit to support food sovereignty and food sustainability. He loves to introduce new plants and food to people and his mission is to empower black youth to return to their roots, honour what was forgotten and stolen, and help people reconnect to the land. He believes that by decolonizing our minds and diets, we can be truly on the path to health and healing.
Melissa West Morrison|| Ga’axsta’las || 琪琪 ||
Melissa has one foot in Cedar and another in Bamboo. She is ‘Namgis and Chinese. Passionate about growing culturally relevant food and making medicines, Melissa is a plant alchemista in training and on a life-long journey of learning the language of plants. Melissa facilitates intergenerational land-based educational programming and community-based research projects related to Indigenous food security while increasing knowledge of and access to traditional plants and foods.
She is a community artist, UBC alumni and recent graduate of the Tsawwassen First Nation Farm School. Melissa has also recently embarked on learning her ancestral language of Kwak̓wala at North Island College and is enrolled in a Family Food Security Course.
Senaqwila Wyss
Senaqwila is Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), Tsimshian, Sto:lo, Hawaiian and Swiss. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the faculty of Communications, Arts and Technology, minor in First Nations Studies. She also holds a First Nations Languages Proficiency Certificate and Diploma in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim.
She and her husband, Lil̓wat filmmaker Justin Leo, are raising their 5year old daughter, and adopted her 10year old niece, to be first language speakers, which has not been done in her family for generations after colonial impacts. She practices ethnobotany with traditionally trained mom Cease Wyss with indigenous plant medicines. Senaqwila was raised learning these ancestral teachings and uses plants as teas, medicines, tinctures and ceremony.
Alisha Lettman
Alisha Lettman (she/they) is a Jamaican-Sindhi artist, plant lover, and educator. She started the Legacy Growers Collective in 2020 to stewards cultural foods & medicines of the African Diaspora & facilitate land-based learning. Presently, she teaches with ARC Community School. She specializes in place-based learning and uses artistic practice & cultural and historical knowledge to ignite belonging, compassion, creativity, and interdependence In youth.
In 2021 she completed her Bachelors in Leadership & Social Change from the University of British Columbia. As a lifelong learner herself, she also has professional experience in Hindustānī music, massage therapy & traditional herbal medicine.
