[BCFSN] Fwd: DECK Minutes May 5th

[Abra Brynne]

Please read below for a powerful statement from the Working Group on
Indigenous Food Sovereignty.
in good food,
abra

Abra Brynne  she | her

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Dawn Morrison <dawn.morrison at wgifs.org>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2021 at 11:18
Subject: Re: DECK Minutes May 5th
To: el <el at wepress.ca>
Cc: Dtes Community Food <dtes-community-food at googlegroups.com>, Indigenous
Food Systems <ifs at bcfsn.org>, <wgifs at bcfsn.org>, Melana Roberts <
chair at foodsecurecanada.org>



MEDIA RELEASE                       MAY 18, 2021


Transformative Justice - Dealing with Multiple Overlapping Crises

The Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS) would like to
express solidarity with the most vulnerable who were displaced from the
Strathcona Park Tent City on May 3, 2021, including seniors, people living
with disabilities, chronic illness, addictions and poor mental health.
Since the time we began our residency at the Strathcona Fieldhouse in 2019,
we have witnessed some of the saddest experiences of the human condition,
which have made us understand the need for a transformative justice
approach to address the underlying systemic injustices that created the
conditions at the encampment.

A transformative justice approach calls for accountability of ALL parties
involved to play a role in dismantling the colonial matrix of power that is
built on a long history of genocide, associated with eviction,
displacement, and normalizing the criminalization of disadvantaged peoples,
thereby perpetuating the ongoing cycles of unresolved trauma underlying the
flawed foster care system, racial capitalism, drug and alcohol addictions,
sexual violence, and lack of justice the Murdered and Missing Indigenous
Women, and 2SLGBTQ.

The camp was located in one of the most gentrified and poverty-stricken
neighbourhoods in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It is time for
courageous and bold action to abolish the white supremacist structures and
processes that caused the disparities. Sadie Keuhn, an Elder in the Black
community with a long history of anti-poverty and anti-racism leadership,
states: “I believe that most people believe that every one of us has a
basic right to safe housing. One which is accessible and affordable and
which we have a say about. All these things seem so simple and
straightforward and so very important attributes of a just society. We must
make it so”.

As tensions and polarizations have increased within the  Strathcona Park
known for its rich history of social justice activism, there is a dire need
for reparations to the land and displaced communities. We call for
defunding the police and allocating more adequate financial, technical and
human support to develop trauma-informed land-based healing programming in
the Downtown Eastside community, where  Indigenous, Black, People of
Colour, and poor working-class white people are overrepresented.

The WGIFS calls on governments, police, homeowners, and organizations to
work with communities to develop more just and adequate frameworks for
socially responsible policies and nature-based planning in park spaces.
Increasing access to the infrastructure and support needed for
Indigenous-led, land-based healing programming in the park can serve to
restore the land, territory and dignity and breathe some much-needed
healing and regeneration into the DTES. We call on all involved to join us
in a decolonizing approach to making reparations with the Coast Salish,
whose unceded land and waters we occupy as uninvited guests – to chart the
pathway to transform the darkness surrounding the trauma and harm that’s
been caused. Heal the land, heal the people.


-30-


Media Contacts:



Dawn Morrison, Founder/Curator

Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty:
778.879.5106



On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 11:08 AM el <el at wepress.ca> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Please find the minutes from the May 5th DECK meeting in the attachment.
>
> See you all tomorrow for the next DECK meeting (May 19th at 2PM).
>
> El Purdey
> *They/them*
> *Downtown Eastside Community Kitchen (DECK) Program Coordinator*
> *WePress Community Arts Space Society*
>
>
> --
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> "DTES Community Food" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
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> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dtes-community-food/17980a9c5ed.f1e674891125465.8057336620031766188%40wepress.ca
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dtes-community-food/17980a9c5ed.f1e674891125465.8057336620031766188%40wepress.ca?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
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-- 
Dawn Morrison, Founder/Research Curator
Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty
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