Kahnawake garden grows culture and community along with vegetables

Feeding Montreal is a series that explores the political, economic, social and personal relationships Montrealers have withtheir food. It's a collaboration between the Department of Journalism at Concordia Universityand CBC Montreal.

This story is the work of a team of student journalists.

Kanerahtiio Hemlock brushes off the freshly fallen snow from an aluminum pail hanging from the maple tree in front of him. He peers inside to inspect how much sugary liquid has accumulated over the last few days.

Satisfied with the yield, he unhooks the pail from its tap and pours the sap into a large, bright orange bucket that sinks deep into the knee-high snow under the weight of its contents.

"Some days you can fill up these buckets with just a couple of trees," Hemlock says.

A teacher at the First Nation Regional Adult Education Center (FNRAEC) in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawakeon Montreal's South Shore,Hemlock has brought his students to this patch of forest to help a community member collect sap from some 200 maple trees here before turning it into syrup.

MORE IN THIS SERIES:

• Getting to zero waste: Montreal caf shows you how it's done
• Walk on the wild side: Montrealers trade convenience for connecting with their food
• Would you like your eggs Instrammable? How social media can make a menu item a star

Hemlock's course is unlike any other: students are involved in a range of hands-on projects, such as gardening, beekeeping and raising chickens.

They are also encouraged to connect with their Mohawk culture and give back to their community.

"I've been showing them that it's okay to help people and not expect anything in return. By giving out that good will and helping out, it comes back in different ways," Hemlock said.

As the first signs of spring appear, Hemlock and his students anxiously wait for the snow to melt. They are all ready to work in a project that inspired the creation of the FNAREC course: Kahnawake's community garden.

Gardening, beekeeping, raising chickens and much more in Kahnawake

6 years ago

Duration 1:03

Students Dean Borello and Travis Deer are building their community thanks to Kanerahtiio Hemlocks class at the First Nations Regional Adult Education Centre.

A garden for the community

The eight-hectare garden, about the size of 13 CFL football fields, sits on a controversial piece of land wedged between Highway 30 and St. Isidore Road, bordering the municipalityof Saint-Constant.

As the long-awaited Highway 30 extension neared completion in 2012, the Quebec government handed roughly 200 hectares of land along the highway back to the Mohawk community, which the Kahnawake Mohawk Council earmarked for development.

At first, all the usual ideas were putforward: a gas station, a warehouse, a casino.

Then in January 2015, Hemlock and his partner, Raven Swamp, came up with an alternative use for the land an idea rooted in Mohawk tradition and culture.

Together, Hemlock and Swamp envisioned a garden in which all members of Kahnawake could participate, learn new gardening techniques and pass on traditions.

Half of what would be grownwould be shared among the families who participated in the planting and care of the garden. The rest would be gifted to the community's schools, an elder's lodge, an independent living centre and other local organizations.

Hemlock and Swamp consulted with the people of Kahnawaketo get their approval, going on the radio, placing ads in the local newspaper and speakingwith elders.

The response was overwhelming.

"There wasn't one person that said no," Hemlock said.

With the community on board, the pairannounced they'd break soil in the garden onMay 15, 2015 Planting Day and have been growing crops there ever since.

Improving health, food security

For Hemlock, the garden has brought Kahnawake community members together in ways he never expected.

"We have traditional people and non-traditional people; we have Catholics and non-Catholics; we have young people and old people," Hemlock said.

The project was engendered, in part, by the rise of worrisomehealth issues in Kahnawake, such as diabetes.

"One thing that would benefit everybody is our own healthy, traditional, organic food," said Hemlock. "It's empowering if we are all growing it together."

Moreover, access to fresh fruits and vegetables improves Kahnawake's food security, a topic often discussed within the community.

KahnawakeMohawks have never forgotten what happened during the 1990 OkaCrisis.

Encircled by protesters, police and, eventually, the Canadian military, they were essentially trapped on the reservefor much of the 78-day standofftriggered by a landdispute in Kahnawake's sister community of Kanesatake.

Food quickly grew scarce.

• Watch this July 12, 1990 CBC report on dwindling food supplies in Kahnawake
• Read more about the OkaCrisis here: The OkaLegacy
  • Images from the Oka Crisis

From Swamp's perspective, the crisis forced the people of Kahnawake to realize dependingon outside sources for food can be risky.

"It taught us we need to take this into our own hands," said Swamp.

For gardener Rateriios Cross, the community projectrepresents the opportunity to provide for themselves using the knowledge passed on by Mohawkancestors.

"It's better to have your own knowledge of growing your own food," said Cross. "You can't rely on Walmart or Super C."

"That's the main goal," said Swamp. "We are becoming more independent."

Cultivatingculture and tradition

Four planting seasons later, the garden has fulfilled its founders' desire to offermore than just fresh vegetables.

It also plays a vital role in revivingMohawk gardening traditions and keeping them alive for future generations.

To open the planting season, Kahnawakewomen sing a seed song to the spirit of the plants while giving thanks for the upcoming harvest.

Before the community garden was launched, that ceremony took place indoors, in the community's traditional spiritual meeting place, called the Longhouse.

"It's just not the same," said Swamp. "It's really powerful to have the women open the garden, in the garden."

Moreover, Swamp and other educatorsare teaching younger students how to sow seeds,and they organize field trips to the garden so the childrencan learn how to growand harvest food.

"We have to teach our children and bring back the knowledge of how to start a seed and nurture it until it becomes food," Swamp said.

Once corn and other vegetables are fully grown and harvested, students are encouraged to use the whole plant.

They learn how to make moccasins, dollsand rugs from the corns' husksandsilk, and they use the corn kernelsto make a traditional meal called mush essentially, a cornmeal porridge.

In so many ways, said Swamp, the community garden is helping topreservetraditional knowledge and gardening skills that can bepassed on from generation to generation.

"You can see this cycle. The elders are passing on that knowledge to us and we are passing it on to our children," she said.

"That's how a community should be."

MORE IN THIS SERIES:

• Getting to zero waste: Montrealcafshows you how it's done
• Walk on the wild side:Montrealerstrade convenience for connecting with their food
• Would you like your eggsInstrammable? How social media can make a menu item a star

Feeding Montreal is a collaboration between the Journalism Department at Concordia University's journalism and CBC Montreal.

• About the journalists: Joseph Coppolino,Daniel Fuoco and Miriam Mokrusa

Working in small teams, students in the department's graduate diploma program found and produced original stories about the political, economic, social and personal relationshipsMontrealershave withtheir food.

The studentsspent the winter semester developingtheir stories in text, audio, video, photography, infographicsand maps.