Berries harvested from the Belanger's first crop.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Mariel and Sienna Belanger

Mariel and Sienna Belanger, a Syilx mother and daughter duo from the Okanagan Indian Band, are in the midst of creating a "food forest", a resource that will secure organic, local Indigenous food for generations to come.

While grappling with the question of what will happen to their food resources in the forest, the Belanger’s decide to jump the gun and prevent any uncertainty by doing it themselves.

“It's not just a food forest,” Mariel said. “It's a site of activation, and it's a place where we can dream about what does our future landscape look like and what is necessary to the landscape today that we should be taking care of to ensure that we have tomorrow.

“If we're not planting now, that future is going to be more and more dystopian."

While minimizing their personal risk of food insecurity, the pair are making sure they will have good food that is right for them. They hope to inspire others to start their own food forests to keep others in tune with their own bodies and keep themselves food secure.

The idea took off after the intense White Rock Lake wildfire of 2022. The blaze destroyed 78 homes when it roared through the Ewings Landing and Killiney areas on the north westside of Okanagan Lake.

The mother and daughter were concerned about the orange fire retardant dropped in the forest where they gather food and medicine.

“There's a lot of things that are wrong out there in... the organic natural world. It's no longer organic and it's no longer natural,” Mariel said. “It's completely being destroyed by our own doing, as contemporary peoples. Forest fires are a natural part of the cycle of life, however, we're not dealing with forest fires anymore. We're dealing with infernos and all of the changes that come with that.”

This past summer, Sienna and Mariel planted over 100 different crops that are native to the land including berries, trees and flowers that their ancestors would have been familiar with. They also plan to plant cottonwood trees to make canoes and sweetgrass for smudging.

READ MORE: 'I touched its bum hairs': A Kamloops resident's surprise bear encounter

“We're not just growing these foods because we want to, it's because we need them in our own diets, in our own bodies,” Mariel said “I have learned so much about the importance of being grounded and the importance of having good nutrition that comes from your own cultural background.”

With a $150,000 grant from New Relationship Trust, they built a greenhouse and a barn, and bought a tractor as the expand the food forest.

Traditional to their Syilx culture, after they ensure they have enough food, medicine and material to sustain themselves, they are ready to share and barter with their community around them.

Mariel and Sienna are relearning to live off their land and work with the environment around them.

“We're Syilx women who own the land and steward the land on unceded Syilx territory... we're reclaiming our practices and building our relationship as mother and daughter on the land and building our dreams together,” Sienna said.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Bailey Zimmer or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here. Find our Journalism Ethics policy here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2024