Upholding Responsibilities to Treaties and Decolonization, the NFU Honours Indigenous Peoples Day
In honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21st, the NFU celebrates the resurgence of Indigenous peoples and their ways of life. We know that the ecological and cultural systems in which we live are intimately tied to the vitality and well-being of Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, languages, and economies. We are deeply grateful for the strength, perseverance, and leadership of Indigenous peoples who continue to uphold their sacred obligations to steward and defend these lands, waters, and multi-species communities that we all depend on, despite facing historic and ongoing genocidal violence.
The NFU’s support of Indigenous peoples extends beyond recognition and celebration. As an organization focused on justice and sustainability, we are taking this opportunity to reflect on how Canadian agriculture has contributed to the on-going colonization of the lands we now call home. The NFU recognizes that, in particular, on-going land dispossession undermines Indigenous Peoples’ food growing and gathering rights and sovereignties. Fundamentally different relationships to land are necessary to foster ecological and social health and wellbeing for everyone.
The imperative to maintain the health and wellbeing of these lands and waters is increasingly a basis for solidarity between non-Indigenous farmers and Indigenous Peoples. One of the many gifts that Indigenous peoples carry is knowledge of different ways of living on these lands, and the ability to offer non-Indigenous people examples of a world beyond present-day ecological crises, inequality, and injustice. Appreciating these gifts requires sustained engagement in community building, care, reciprocity, and a willingness to examine and change our ways of thinking and doing.
The NFU’s Indigenous Solidarity Working Group (ISWG) is a space where NFU members are coming together to learn, unlearn, and nurture relationships as we move towards decolonization, Indigenous resurgence and sovereignties, rematriation, and meaningful reconciliation. We are exploring the ways in which our efforts for social and ecological justice can support and learn from movements for Indigenous sovereignty and advocacy for new relationships to land. This includes rematriation, which entails a return to peaceful relations and a new collective way of caring for each other and the land. We believe that a more just and life-sustaining future depends on vibrant Indigenous food systems and ways of knowing and relating to each other and nature.
We need all hands on deck for this work. That is why we invite you to celebrate with us today by joining the NFU and our ISWG so that we can co-create a more just and sustainable future.
