One Dish Project
This project has been made possible through donations, grants, and Indigenous Business
Honouring the Treaties Through Food Sovereignty & Land Based Education
Indigenous food sovereignty and land-based education provides a restorative framework for health, well-being, and community development; a step forward in truly beginning to reconcile past social and environmental injustices in an approach that people of all cultures can relate to.
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The Dish With One Spoon Treaty represents something that we work on daily. Our project is based in Kenhtè:ke but is intended to grow into other under-served communities and communicates our goals of sharing, community building, Indigenous food sovereignty, maintaining language and culture, and more. We are in the community, in the school, and creating something beautiful our ancestors can be proud of.
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All food and medicine that comes from our gardens goes to community members free of charge without the need to disclose personal information. Non-Indigenous people can access the resources as well by donation/pay what you can. Workshops on preserving, canning, etc., will be accessible to everyone, and all are encouraged to come volunteer at the gardens.
The Dish With One Spoon
The Dish with One Spoon Wampum between the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy (Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations) and Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) is the most well-known inter-nation ‘one-dish alliances.’ It represents a formal peace agreement assuring mutual benefit to all parties and extends to all other Indigenous Nations and settlers who arrived in the area around the Great Lakes region and along the St. Lawrence River, up to the border with the current province of Quebec. This wampum covenant and other ‘one-dish treaties’ reflect the principles that were given to the Haudenosaunee by the Peacemaker in the Kayanere’kowa (Great Law of Peace).
The “Dish” or sometimes it is called the “Bowl” represents what is now Southern Ontario. Nations are only to eat from the dish with one spoon, meaning that resources should be shared, each territory should be respected, and nations will not war with each other for the domination of the resources. In this sense, the concept is about respect for the people and animals upon the lands we live upon.The Dish With One Spoon Treaty carries three basic tenets: Only take what you need; always leave something in the dish for everybody else, including the dish; and third, you keep the dish clean.
Although people call Toronto the Dish territory, it actually only sits on one part of the massive Treaty area.
Read More on Food Sovereignty, Indigenous Education, and More in the Blog Section
Posts on land-based education, culture, language, and updates on the progress of the One Dish Project
