Digging into the colonial roots of gardening

Don’t Call Me Resilient

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As we approach the start of gardening season, we figured it’s a good time to bring you one of our most talked-about episodes about the complicated, colonial roots of gardening - which have affected what we plant and who gets to garden.

How we garden is deeply tied to colonialism — from the spread of seeds and species around the world to the use of forced labour and slavery that went hand in hand to the collection and commodification of plants. But there is a growing shift away from the status symbol of the lawn and manicured gardens, in favour of pollinator-friendly native plants. And there is a growing understanding that centuries-old Indigenous knowledge and practices — like controlled burns — can help foster a more resilient landscape. With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens.

Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the "weeds" we pull?

Vinita gets into it all with researcher Jacqueline L. Scott and community activist Carolynne Crawley, who leads nature workshops that integrate Indigenous teachings into practice.

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