Cultivating Cultural Resilience: Racialized Food Systems Rooted in History, Care, and Sustainability

In partnership with University of Guelph at the 2025 Cultivating Resilience summit

Racialized food systems embody long histories of resilience and adaptation, brought by diasporic communities from their homelands to Canada. These systems have been foundational to Canadian and global food economies, yet often operate in parallel and are undervalued or dismissed as “frivolous” in Western-centric food systems. 

From 19th-century Chinese market gardens to South Asian farming in the Fraser Valley and the banning and marginalization of Palestinian food traditions, these histories show both the endurance and erasure of cultural food systems. 

In partnership with the Univeristy of Guelph, we curated a panel at the 2025 Cultivating Resilience summit that brought together racialized practitioners, educators, and scholars from Chinese, South Asian, and Palestinian traditions to explore the alignments and tensions between cultural and environmental sustainability with relation to food. Panelists shared lived knowledge, historical lessons, and contemporary practices while imagining futures where racialized food systems are not sidelined, but recognized as essential to Canada’s climate-smart agri-food landscape.

Speakers included Gurleen Mann of Mann Farms, Nazmi Kamal of Capilano University, Dr. Yao Xiao of UBC and Critical Alternatives, and Melody Yun Ya Ma of Critical Alternatives.

Whispers, Wonders, Worldmakings:  A Participatory Action Research with Multilingual Migrant Queer Youth of Colour

Funded by UBC Department of Educational Studies

West Asia + North Africa + East Asia: A Global Youth Dialogue to Unlearn Orientalism

Co-presented with Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at UBC. Funded by UBC Inspired.

An intercultural youth dialogue and free public event on how Orientalism manifests in the contemporary context of media, pop culture, arts, education, and everyday life, with critical perspectives and lived experiences shared by speakers from West Asia, North Africa, and East Asia

Remembering Nelson’s Chinatown: A Window into the Past and the Future

In collaboration with Foundation for Chinese Dignity, Nelson Museum, Archives & Gallery, and Kootenay Co-op Radio. Funded by UBC Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund.

This project creates a large bilingual (Chinese-English) window poster to honour the Sing Chong laundry in Nelson, BC, the last remnant of the largest Chinatown in the BC Interior. Drawing on archival and oral histories, the poster foregrounds the migration, labour, and community histories of Chinese Canadians, highlighting racialized, gendered, and minoritized experiences often erased from local memory. Designed with linguistic and cultural sensitivity, it serves as a public pedagogical intervention, fostering intergenerational learning, cultural awareness, and community-university collaboration. More than a visual artifact, the project reclaims space for memory, dignity, and cultural continuity.

Relevant publication:

• HISTORY BUFF: The Chinese laundries of Nelson (Nelson Star)