Abstract
This paper explores the titular curatorial project, which is a forthcoming day-long arts event scheduled for September 2022. “Rooted in the Region: Arts and Agriculture in Southwestern Ontario”, uses research-creation and artistic knowledge mobilization to look at local and regional agricultural practices and issues in relation to the globalized systems through the lens of the arts, highlighting Indigenous, settler, and Mexican voices. This event will combine food and artistic interventions; a panel discussion including scholars, farmers and artists; and a curated film screening of works that address agriculture, art and labour. Southwestern Ontario is one of Canada’s richest farm belts. However, issues around food security and food justice persist. Ontario’s agriculture industry draws tens of thousands of migrant workers every year to work on its farms and in its greenhouses, with an ever-increasing percentage coming from Mexico. Simultaneously, Indigenous farmers, gardeners, chefs, seed keepers and others maintain traditional knowledge, and innovate, despite ongoing colonialism and dispossession. The goal of the event is to bring together community members as participants and audience, as well as interdisciplinary researchers involved in art and food studies in southwestern Ontario to create impactful alliances and to plant the seeds for innovative future collaborations. Our presentation for Imagining the Edible: Food, Creativity and the Arts will reflect on the “Rooted in the Region” event in relation to our hypothesis that the arts can imagine—and therefore help to achieve—food security, food justice, and food sovereignty.
Presenters
Amanda WhiteWestern University Zoë Heyn Jones
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Visual Arts, Western University, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Imagining the Edible: Food, Creativity, and the Arts
KEYWORDS
Agriculture, Arts, Southwestern Ontario, Curatorial, Research-creation, Indigenous, Settler, Mexican
