Description

We are excited to announce the Request for Proposals for the 2021 Build and Broaden Indigenous Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Symposium to take place September 19-21, 2021. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Symposium seeks to provide opportunities for Indigenous knowledge holders, researchers, practitioners, producers, and community members to share common interests, insights, and dialogue from across the fields of Indigenous agriculture and foods. Content of the symposium aims to center on four interrelated themes - Indigenous food ecology, economy, diversity, and sovereignty (FEEDS) to build and broaden education and collaboration, specifically in ways that FEEDS the body, mind, spirit, and community.

The Indigenous Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Symposium will explore histories, contemporary movements, and future transformations of Indigenous agriculture and food sovereignty in North America. On the first day of the Symposium within the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the theme is SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL: PRACTICING FOOD SOVEREIGNTY. For days 2-3, we invite proposals within the following overarching Symposium themes on day 2, TWO SIDES OF A CIRCLE: ECOLOGY & ECONOMY and day 3, THE EARTH WILL SHOW US THE WAY: EDUCATION & DIVERSITY.

These themes aim to enhance our understanding of the ways agricultural and food systems shape and are shaped by both human and natural systems at different scales. Science, technology, public policy, culture, and market forces increasingly interact with climate, ecosystems, and species to produce and reconfigure modern food systems. We also seek to share impacts and disparities of modern food systems and what communities are doing to restore and preserve local economies, cultures, and wellbeing through food sovereignty actions.

Pending the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, we plan to host the Symposium onsite, in and around, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and Northern Michigan University.

For more information about the Build and Broaden Symposium, please visit the website at https://food-sovereignty.com/.

If you are interested in participating as a vendor, please visit the Symposium website and submit a vendor application form separately.

If you would like to propose a workshop, presentation, panel dialogue, or poster at this year’s Build and Broaden Symposium, please complete the Google Form information below.