Justice, Equity,
diversity,
& inclusion
Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at Garden City Harvest
All of the staff at Garden City Harvest actively works to grow our justice equity, diversity, and inclusion. This is essential to our mission, vision, and values. And it is good for all of us. For us, this means a yearly staff training via Soul Fire Farm, as well as an active JEDI Committee, and work with local change makers EmpowerMT. We welcome comments, suggestions, and thoughts on how we can do better.
Land Acknowledgement
Garden City Harvest acknowledges that we are in the homelands of the Séliš (Salish) and Ql̓ispé (Kalispel) people. Today, we offer our respect for their history and culture, for their ancient and continuing presence in this landscape, and for the path they have shown us in caring for this place for the generations to come.
Created with guidance from the Séliš-Ql̓ispé Culture Committee
With this guidance, Garden City Harvest is actively working to heal what has been a destructive and violent history. A history in which western agriculture was a tool of land dispossession, disruption of ancestral foodways, and colonization. We are committed to moving forward through open dialogue, collaboration, and thoughtful action. As farmers and gardeners, we acknowledge how the land can nourish us in mind and body. Land is healing. Farming practices are rooted in traditional knowledge. We strive to connect people with the land while centering relationships in reciprocity.
Action Plan
What we are doing now:
To move beyond acknowledgment and into action in healing the land and its inhabitants:
Working with local leaders to increase tribal food sovereignty (All Nations)
Partnership with All Nations Health Center and Soft Landing –growing food for distribution at each organization
Working with Soft Landing to place clients at our Community Gardens
Helping spread the word/amplify the message of a number of local BIPOC led organizations
Amplify their fundraising efforts as well as their events and messages
Share their milestones and stories regularly
Working with partners at the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, All Nations Health Center, People’s Food Sovereignty Program, and American Indian Student Services, the PEAS Farm grows a Four Sisters Garden inspired by Waheenee or the Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa woman who farmed in Like-a-Fishhook Village in present-day North Dakota, carrying out her community’s farming traditions. This is a University of Montana initiated project.
Food and seed from this garden is given to ANHC, PFSP, AISS, and other partners
Seed is returned to PEAS/UM partners at MHA Nation
Each season, two University of Montana students caretake the garden, organizing community events for tribal community members through ANHC, PFSP, and University partners
Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to land through agriculture are centered in PEAS Farm course curriculum through relationships and visits with Native speakers, as well as readings from Native writers.
The PEAS Farm’s native plant garden features interpretive signs that provide Salish names, ethnobotanical information, and original illustrations for 10 culturally significant Missoula-native plants. These signs were made by Maggie Gammons, PEAS Farm caretaker, as her senior capstone project in partnership with Rosalyn LaPier and Marilyn Marler.
Creating year-round habitat for our non-human relatives at farm sites, community gardens, and school gardens. Educating the community about the importance of creating habitat and rethinking our relationship to the land and the creatures it sustains.
Next Steps:
Add Séliš language signage with help of an indigenous consultant
Additional signage in our gardens and farms in Séliš
Ask indigenous partner organizations if there is another way we can provide support/resources/reparations as an organization. Deepen our relationship with All Nations Health Center.
Learning more as a staff about reciprocity and incorporating it into our daily work.
Provide and encourage early educational/training opportunities for staff