Market garden helps youth develop business skills

Page 40

Young Aboriginal people from the Siksika First Nation in southern Alberta are returning to the land while learning about what it takes to develop a business in their home community with a project called Business without Borders.

The group of young people has developed a business plan for a market garden that will eventually provide fresh organic produce to their community and beyond. The official ground-breaking ceremony of the initial three acre garden took place on June 3 on the land of the Siksika with the traditional blessing of the ground by an Elder.

As part of the ceremony, 400 traditional buffaloberry trees and 100 poplar trees were planted around the garden to serve as shelter for future crops.

"The trees were originally called bullberry bushes by the Elders, but somehow in translation the name was changed. They grow native to the reserve and they will have more of a chance to grow a lot better. They will act mainly as windbreak along with the trees that were planted," said Stacy Doore, manager of the market garden.

The market garden will initially employ six young people from the Siksika First Nation over the course of this growing season to prepare the ground for the all-organic garden.

The project developed over the last year as part of the work that is being done by the Siksika Nation Youth Entrepreneurial Development Society. The society aims at giving Siksika young people who are 18 to 28 years of age, business experience.

"A group of youth did research last year in the community. They asked if they were to grow a garden . . . would that be good? Everyone in the community agreed to it. There is not too many gardens on the reserve, so why shouldn't the reserve have their own market garden where they can get vegetables from their own youth?" asked Doore.

The Siksika First Nation has more than 3,000 residents and half of them are under 24 years of age. At least 15 per cent of the young people there are unemployed, said Doore.

Doore pointed to young people of the community as playing a large part in the future of the community.

"Our youth are going to be our future councillors, leaders, police officers, you name it, and this program is based on getting them into a working program where they can actually learn skills. This is an educational program. We all sit down and write a report on goals they want to achieve in this business," said Doore.

Using the name Business without Borders doesn't just apply to business, but the borders of personal growth and the invisible boarders of living on the reserve for the young people here, said Doore.

The group of young people are busy preparing the ground according to the meticulous methods used in organic farming. The first two years the garden will be prepared for a third year of full production of carrots, potatoes and lettuce. The crop will vary. The garden is expected to be fully self-sufficient and make a profit by its third year of operation.

The project is based on a community supported agriculture model that brings community members together to work the garden and then share in the produce.

Funding for the garden came from a number of foundations and organizations including the Kahanoff Foundation, the chief and council of the Siksika First Nation, Aboriginal Business Canada and Inland Cement. The young people who are working to develop the garden are mentored by Elders from their community and professionals like Michelle Long, landscape architecture, and Yvonne Landon in education. The young people who researched the project went to California to see a place called Fairview Farms. Doore and the rest of the group were inspired by the organic farm in California that is in the middle of an urban area and has the whole community involved.

"If you ever ask the youth 'where do you get your vegetables from? . . . they'll say 'I get mine from Safeway,' but that's not where you're getting them from; you're getting it from the farmers that grow it. It's from the erth, everything around us, is there for us; it's a matter of how much we value the earth and that's the focus here. The earth comes first," said Doore.