nsisul̓aʔxʷ Food Forest

Wildfires are quickly becoming the most visible extreme weather events around the world. There were 19 large wildfire disasters worldwide in 2021, the third-highest annual figure recorded since the Anthropocene began. Due to a rapidly warming planet, extreme wildfires are said to surge 14 percent by 2030 and 30 percent by 2050. Many studies have shown there are increased levels of post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety after disasters, such as wildfires.If the fire reaches homes and businesses, financial distress ensues, leading to a long road to recovery. In areas affected by wildfires, tourism revenue declines due to safety concerns, road closures, and poor air quality.  As wildfires become a more significant risk around the world, it's important to consider the ways that fires and fire season affect the local economy. An economic study has estimated that each additional day of smoke exposure from a wildfire reduces earnings in a community by about 0.04% over two years.

As an Indigenous person living on reserve, building upon traditional knowledge and technology to meet the social, environmental, and economic goals of my community is a vital part of my land-based artistic practice. 

 In 2015 I had a car accident brought on by undiagnosed bipolar. Since that car accident I began a master’s degree in performance theory, researching who I was in relation to time, space and place and learning how to carve a path through the colonial experience with Embodied Story Practice inspired by the tule reed harvest. Embodied Story Practice is demystifying the social stigma of disabilities and mental health by learning to live according to the governance of captikwl – Animal Stories of Natural Law. There are very few Syilx harvesters of tule reeds so this once coveted material lays waste, contributing an overdose of nitrogen trapped in the reeds that used to be removed to make village structures and food service items. A symptom of this era.  Learning to live according to the governance of captikwl – Animal Stories of Natural Law means understanding pre-colonial village roles and governance. 

Through virtual and physical walking with story and song as a historical reference, we can guide people to increase their engagement in activities that preserve the land and the future. With climate change being a hot topic, Kyle Whyte reminds us “[that] some Indigenous peoples, then, offer the idea that we confront climate change having already passed through environmental and climate crises arising from the impacts of colonialism.” (Whyte p226)

In 2021 the Whiterock Lake fire burned huge swaths of forest on either side of my on-reserve property, which prompted me to begin devising this proposed solution as a necessity in food sovereignty and erosion control. When water is controlled and slowed down it is less likely to cause damage. Adopting stormwater mitigation strategies will help in managing runoff, enhancing field water retention, and reducing garden water needs. Planting indigenous species will assist in restoring the natural forested habitat. The idea is to slow down the flooding water and use it as much as possible before being absorbed back into the environment. This is an excellent opportunity to create a pond to help sustain the homestead and gardens. Transforming the top field into a fertile diverse homestead/gallery creates opportunity where there is none.

Minimalistic and environmentally friendly practices are employed to revive the landscape through land-based art and permaculture while it is in use. The goal is to work in balance with the landscape, to ensure the longevity of this endeavour while preserving the land for future generations. Our task as contemporary citizens in late-stage capitalism has never been more vital. This will be accomplished by employing the use of ancestral knowledge of the environment to decolonize and collectively heal with the land. On the lands of my maternal grandmother overlooking Okanagan Lake and of the present community—the same lands and places of memory that were then destroyed by fire, we awaken and revitalize the Indigenous governance through physical gestures of creation and decolonization. 

Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is an in-person, Indigenous-led, inclusive, culture-centred, sustainable, social enterprise. Through storytelling and hands-on experience, we are building connections with other like-minded people and with the land to devise a circular economy and create a seed bank to replant key riparian zones affected at Dry Creek. “Indigenous food systems include all of the land, soil, water, and air, as well as culturally important plant, fungi, and animal species that have sustained Indigenous peoples over thousands of years of participating in the natural world,” (Food Secure Canada, 2013)

Our goal is to share important indigenous foods and artistic land-based knowledge intergenerationally and with artists and participants on the land and grow respect and care for the land by hand, sharing food and stories of the people to educate the larger community, indigenizing foods, and plants and hopefully respond to fire warnings faster next time.  We welcome visitors to join us and learn about the land, wildlife, and language.

Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery predicts a future where culture, language, trust, reconciliation, healing, food and honest relationships return to the core of our sqilxw way of being and knowing in the world. We believe that by sharing sustainable tasks on the land, we can create a just and equitable society that values and promotes the well-being of all.

Indigenous women are four times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence. Indigenous women make up 16% of all female homicide victims, and 11% of missing women, yet Indigenous people make up only 4.3% of the population of Canada. CBC reports First Nations adults are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes as found in a Statistics Canada study that compared First Nations adults, to non-indigenous Canadians under the age of 75. A 2015 study called First Peoples, Second Class Treatment by the Wellesley Institute  suggested that racism against Indigenous people in the healthcare system is "pervasive" and a major factor in substandard health among native people in Canada.

Stats Canada also indicates that in 2017/2018, 8.8% of Canadian households - approximately 1.2 million - experienced some moderate or severe food insecurity due to financial constraints.  These kinds of household food insecurity have been associated with a range of poor physical and mental health outcomes, for example, multiple chronic conditions, distress, and depression. Examining and resolving personal bias should be considered a core professional responsibility, critical for providing ethical, equitable and effective services to Indigenous women. This contributes to reconciliation and a more just society.

According to Stats Can by 2016, 14% of Indigenous women aged 25 to 64 had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is up from 9% a decade earlier in 2006. The disparities in educational attainment between Indigenous people and the non-Indigenous population persist. Moreover, Indigenous people are particularly underrepresented at the highest levels of education. 

Indigenous women face significant bias and discrimination in many professional settings. Professionals need to address their own biases to provide culturally safe and equitable treatment for Indigenous women. To uphold ethical standards and provide quality care.  Unexamined bias can lead to inferior treatment and harm. As Indigenous academics continue to point out, colonial ideologies like the "just get over it" mentality reflect archaic, dehumanizing views of Indigenous peoples rooted in colonialism. Professionals must provide non-discriminatory services to all clients and patients.

 Through her Masters, PhD studies and her own lived experience as a Syilx woman, Mariel understands how Indigenous methodology can benefit society through social enterprise and reconstructing industries to be more environmentally focused on land-based practices associated with place and the people already in that place.   By combining Indigenous land-based healing practices and source food practices, Indigenous women-led food sovereignty leaders not only learn how to eat better, but they also learn how to feel better in their environments thereby building generational wealth first with themselves.

 Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is not only Indigenous-led it is also connected to specific histories that helped build Western Canada. Specifically, in the early 1800’s voyagers and early settlers used the “brigade trail” to travel north or south. Today that trail is called Westside Road. By establishing our Syilx-centric history to this place, we fill gaps in historical knowledge, telling who we are and how we have remained.

 Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is owned and managed by Mariel Belanger, administrator, performance artist, tour designer, and land-based education consultant.  She is assisted by her daughter Sienna Belanger-Lee who is a language specialist and is  Program designer in digital art products, bear skat propagation techniques, and traditional foods. On August 5, 2021, Sienna and Mariel's community was evacuated because a wildfire burned out of control. As a sqilxw being ‘of the land’, they have seen firsthand how fire impacts memory and understanding of what is important both personally and on the land. 

In 2022, Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery was founded by Belanger in her beach house studio to create a safe and sacred space to preserve and share sqilxw traditions to role model and mentor young LGBTQ2S in growing there art practice taking inspiration from a combined love of land-based artistic practices, walking tours, upcycled wearable art, horses, and culture and language activities that raise awareness of First Nations sovereignty. From this experiment, the Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery pop-up exhibition space came to life.  Studio sisp̓l̓k̓ Gallery Inc. is a safe, sacred work and viewing space to preserve and share First Nations contemporary and traditional arts. It is inspired by a love of land-based performance art, contemporary and traditional art practices, wild horses, culture, language and storytelling activities through digital art, walking tours, land-based performances, and natural material workshops that raise awareness of Syilx First Nations sovereignty.

 People want to feel good about their lives in these changing times and are looking for different experiences, seeking a creative healing, representational, and genuine Indigenous experience hosted by Syilx, in community. Land-based Residences nurture the growth of the localization movement with private Indigenous plant identification walks where participants have access to a fire-damaged forested ravine for research, experimentation, and inspiration. Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery also functions as a social enterprise co-creating experimental small batch distribution and creation space for local reserve-based artists wanting to learn ethical engagement with Syilx guest protocols and local Indigenous artists needing workspace and guidance.

Focusing on challenging colonial narratives and centering ongoing Indigenous relationships to territory, provides a decolonizing lens that aligns well with the goals of cultural preservation and Indigenous self-determination. Belanger's interdisciplinary approach, drawing on humanities and political art practice, allows for a multifaceted analysis and reconfiguring of methods to prioritize indigenous approaches. 

While the median income of Canadian artists is $24,300, building homesteads and combining practices help to increase the stability of artists. As seen at Runaway Moon Theatre, located in Secwepemc territory combines medium plot gardening with a puppet studio and museum that Mariel has worked with, are part of “a movement of artists, artist-organizers and other community members, collaborating to express identity, concerns and aspirations through the arts and communications media. It is a process that simultaneously builds individual mastery and collective capacity while contributing to positive cultural change - Arlene Goldbard, “New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development”. 2006, New Village Press, Oakland California. 

This is a concept for reserve communities and small plot landowners to engage in artistic food sovereignty and homesteading as a way to safegard food accessibility to community members as the cost of food continues to rise. Using sharing economies and each one teach one learning opportunities through artistic creative practices that use storytelling and digital technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality among other emerging techniques. 

The studio is located on the Okanagan Indian Band Reserve #1 on the shore of Okanagan Lake.  It is well situated near large, populated areas such as Kelowna and Vernon and is easily accessed by plane, car, and bus.  The property has road access, a well water source, and acres of usable property overlooking the beautiful lake and mountain vistas.  A beachfront gallery offers a location for artisans to relax and enjoy the quiet.  A nearby field of alfalfa and the natural forests entice deer, birds, coyotes, eagles, hawks, mice, and blue herons.  

Activities currently include such things as artist retreats, natural material use workshops, seminars, solo work experiences, pop-up exhibitions, and nature walks.  Cultural and language resources raise awareness of First Nations sovereignty.   Few properties locally provide similar opportunities such as this, but they are popular elsewhere.  Fintry Provincial Park, 28 km southwest, provides camping, swimming, water activities, hiking, and wildlife viewing.  O’Keefe Ranch, located 10 km northeast, is a historical site that offers educational tours, event rentals, goat yoga, live band dances, and theatre camps.  Neither location offers Indigenous experiences or healthy food options and education.  There are no Indigenous-led studio galleries in the North Okanagan.

As a single Indigenous neurodivergent woman I am applying to Solve to help grow my idea and get technical, legal, and financial support to overcome market barriers because I am falling behind trying to write all the grants and build the physical location and create the educational tools for AR and VR walking tours.

yes she lives in community on OKIB #1

Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is one aspect of my transmedia project that catalyzes broader positive impacts by centring indigenous voices and methodologies to reclaim narratives and preserve cultural integrity in digital contexts. It challenges colonial frameworks by combining land-based practices with digital storytelling, analyzing literature on nested sovereignty and cultural protocols to inform ethical community work. This research-creation approach is unique in its focus on alternative temporalities and relational accountability, moving beyond extractive methodologies to empower knowledge holders. The project has the potential to transform the landscape by validating diverse ways of knowing and being and reconfiguring pedagogies to prioritize indigenous epistemologies. It provides a framework for cultural continuity and self-determination through ethical digital storytelling, upholding indigenous nationhood and matrilineal relationships to land. This solution counters dispossession and alienation, instead using virtual cracks to share ancestral teachings and reconnect to place. 

Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is a self-sustaining, First Nations social enterprise and art incubator for dreaming innovations in land-based guesthood practices. Our target customers are socially conscious artists, think tanks, and corporate and group reconciliation retreats wanting to have meaningful transformational experiences.  Communal governance meant everyone learned to work together. What knowledge does it take for a group to build Syilx summer architecture in the form of tule mat tipi? Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is the only business in the Okanagan to offer weaving and assembling 9 ft architectural size tule mat tipi workshops and syilxcentric team building exercises with our new pop-up studio and experimental field site.

Land provides sustenance for current and future generations; it is connected to spiritual beliefs, traditional knowledge and teachings; it is fundamental to cultural reproduction; moreover, commonly held land rights reinforce nationhood. The history of Indigenous lands in Canada is one of disposition and isolation. The UNESCO website says "Indigenous land-based education has implications for science, culture, politics, language, environmental stewardship, land rights, reconciliation—and the future of the planet."

I aim to reclaim narratives and preserve cultural integrity through a artist led food sovereignty project combining Indigenous storytelling and methodologies. This challenges colonial narratives and centers ongoing Indigenous relationships to territory. Exploring digital storytelling is relevant, as is exploring Indigenous protocols in art and education. This analysis considers how artistic works, teaching reflections and digital storytelling can prioritize Indigenous methodologies and ways of governing.

I have grown significantly in my understanding of Indigenous research methodologies and my ability to challenge colonial frameworks through an indigenous analytic lens. I now center Indigenous voices, land, and relationships in my work, while also drawing connections to critical theory and other disciplines. My approach appears more interdisciplinary, holistic and focused on Indigenous self-determination. 

In terms of the studio gallery, I have created a space to share Indigenous narratives, art and knowledge in a way that challenges colonialism and promotes cultural resilience. The gallery exhibits Indigenous art and hosts community events, while also providing educational resources. I aspire to reclaim Indigenous stories and support Indigenous self-determination and food sovereignty by creating an inclusive, decolonizing space for Indigenous voices and perspectives.

• Centering indigenous voices, perspectives, and methodologies in her research through practices like land-based performance art, storytelling, and protocols. I aim to platform Indigenous knowledge holders and approaches respectfully.

• Exploring concepts like nested sovereignty, alternative temporalities, and decolonizing pedagogy through analysis. Tracking my engagement with these ideas helps assess my progress in applying them through creative works.

• Considering protocols and responsibilities in Indigenous art, teaching, and digital storytelling. This helps measure how effectively I embody cultural integrity as a model for others.

• Examining how creative works challenge colonial narratives and center indigenous experiences. Assessing impacts indicates progress toward goals.

• Engaging with scholars like Simpson, Kovach, Archibald, and others to ground my approach in relevant Indigenous scholarship and position my local knowledge.

Overall, centering indigenous voices, applying concepts through practice, and tracking evolutions in approach help to measure progress towards my goals of preserving cultural integrity and challenging colonialism through land-based art practice, storytelling and food sovereignty.

This project connects land-based artistic works to concepts like nested sovereignty and alternative temporalities. It considers how AR performance installations invite participation with Indigenous territories and reinforce responsibilities.The research examines protocols for respectful engagement with indigenous territories and knowledge systems. It looks at protocols for outsider participation in land-based works through food sovereignty practices and considers how to carry these teachings into digital storytelling for global contexts.

This project centers Indigenous knowledge systems and methodologies, challenging colonial narratives through digital storytelling. As a transmedia project, it combines ancestral technologies like land-based group harvesting practices, oral storytelling traditions, and experiential learning with modern tools like AI assistants, online archives, and digital media. It aims to preserve cultural integrity by empowering Indigenous people to share their stories, reclaiming narratives about identity, place, and resilience. The project is grounded in relational accountability, gift-giving, and reciprocity. It explores alternative temporalities, neurodivergence and ways of knowing, bringing Indigenous ontologies into virtual spaces while emphasizing the continued importance of embodiment and land-based protocols. Overall, this project leverages both ancestral and modern tools to empower Indigenous self-determination and cultural continuity.

British Columbia, Thompson Okanagan Region

It might not happen in the next year but in the past, I collaborated with artists from our southern territory that is cut in half by the Canadian/US border. The Okanagan Territory extends into Washinton, Northern Idaho and Northern Montana. I am currently working with a mentor who does travel to the states regularly and thus expanding is possible. I have also done work in Mapuche communities in Chile and want to continue.

2 owner/operators

3 contractors, permaculture design, construction and project planning

since 2022

As Owner/Operators Mariel and Sienna are both card-holding "status Indians" and Indigenous women, we are creating spaces to provide access and opportunities for other marginalized Indigenous women through storytelling, traditional foods and material use. Mariel was diagnosed in 2015 after a tragic car accident with bipolar and has been learning how to live healthy with a manic depressive diagnosis. Sienna has her own experiences with trauma including being kicked in the head by her horse resulting in becoming deaf in her left ear. Both are intergenerational survivors of the Day School and Residential school systems. 

We work on reserve with Keli Westgate in permaculture as she is one of few trained women in the Okanagan region. 

Our construction manager is a Metis neighbour and the only white male we have on the project is also a neighbour who provides emergency assistance when required. 

Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery functions as a social enterprise co-creating experimental small batch distribution and creation space for artists wanting to learn ethical engagement with Syilx guest protocols and local Indigenous artists needing workspace and guidance. Artists will be provided access to a small workshop situated on the beach of Okanagan Lake with select natural materials and opportunities to learn ethical harvesting practices of local materials with mentorship in guest protocols. Using otherwise wasted natural material, such as tule reeds, has high environmental impact and cultural experiential value as harvesting actively assists in cleaning the water systems by reducing material decay as our ancestors did before contact. 

Artists and studio visitors will have many opportunities to strengthen and develop their practices. They will learn about applying for grants, operating their own small business, connecting with their audience, and promoting and circulating their work. Additionally, the space will provide opportunities for inter-community artist networking. Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery is a unique endeavour that supports the learning, growth, and stabilization of the artist collective while facilitating the creation and showcasing of new artwork and projects. Artists can also sell residency-made products at exhibitions, paying a commission amount to Studio sísp̓l̓k̓ Gallery. 

Imagine the smell of alfalfa being cut and the sweet woody smell that brings mice, deer, birds, coyotes, eagles, hawks, and blue herons to the field. Imagine waking up in your private prospector tent to the sound of songbirds and making a French pressed cup of coffee or tea to enjoy on the platform with your long-range lens on a tripod focused on the lower field where a red tail hawk has been frequenting. You take a picture before mixing the perfect reddish brown and begin outlining the bird of prey on your canvas. The tractor rounds the last bit of alfalfa, flipping it over releasing more of that sweet pungent odour into the air. A deer pops its head from behind the fence before jumping over to eat the sweet leaves and stays long enough for you to reposition your lens. 

Your alarm chimes and you head over to the beach gallery where you meet up with a small group to learn tule reed mat making and put up a small reed tipi with them. You meet the other artists in residence who are all creating different art forms inspired by the land and preparing to greet a tour group. You talk for half an hour about the nuances of painting and wildlife photography and send the group on a photographic assignment before the next group arrives. The tour leaves and you end the day back with the artist to have a feast where you get inspired by conversation and learn from the other artists in residence about zero waste material use, permaculture, and traditional foods. 

I have been writing proposals as my own social enterprise for years to assist land based projects with Sqilxw Apna Society. This year I was awarded $50,000 from First Peoples Cultural Council to facilitate artist-based sharing grants where we learn a traditional use for natural materials and co-create innovative wearable art pieces using marsh plants.

I have also written a New Relationship Trust grant for $150,000 that helped us begin planting our food forest purchase farm equipment and build our barn.

Here are some of my past successful community-based grants awarded

ACADEMIC / COMMUNITY AWARDS                         

2023/24           New Relationship Trust (Food Forest development)

2022-25           CGS SSHRC Doctoral Award                                             

2021-22           Teyonkwayenawá:kon Award – Queens University Graduate Scholarship

2020-21           York University Domestic Fellowship in Doctoral Studies award 

2020 –             BC Arts Council Scholarship  

2018 –             Outstanding Indigenous Graduate Student, ICQI U of Illinois

2017 –             Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship UBCO 

2017 –             Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's Program 

2017 –             University Graduate Fellowship UBCO 

2016 –             National Indian Brotherhood Scholarship

ART GRANTS                                                                                                                               

2022/23           Storyhive/Telus Indigenous Voices program. Lead Creative

2020                BC Arts Council – Youth Arts Engagement with Sqilxw Apna   Collective 

2019                FPCC AADA Organization Capacity: Mentorship with O’Keefe Ranch curator 

2019                FPCC Sharing Traditions across Generations: Cat tail materiality with Barb 

Marchand

2018                FPCC AADA Organization Capacity: Egalitarianism & The Isolation Lodge. 

Sqilxw Apna 

2018                FPCC Sharing Traditions across Generations Skinning the Canoe. Sqilxw Apna 

Society

2017                UBCO Travel Grant to present at the International Congress of Qualitative 

Inquiry

2017                UBCO Tuum Est Grant – Tule Mat Lodge exhibit 

2014                BC Arts Council “Professional Development” Cultural liaison, Chile 

2014                Canada Council for the Arts “Story development” Travel Grant, Chile 

2014                First Peoples Cultural Council “Pulling Threads” Youth Arts Engagement Vernon 

2012                Canada Council for the Arts “imagineNative Film Festival Travel Grant Toronto 

2009/12           First People Cultural Council AADA Sookinchoot Youth Media Program Vernon 

2008                Canada Council for the Arts “imagineNative Film Festival Travel Grant Toronto