A tribute by Miwa Takeuchi, on behalf of all the collaborators of Soil Camp.
In our project, we often walk together.
We walk to feel the land and introduce ourselves to the land.
We walk the city to feel inequity in visceral manners - inequity in the access to trees, to community gardens, and to transportation.
When we lose a collaborator, memories of these walks remain with us but also with the places we shared. Places hold the stories we shared along the walk, voices of people we met during the walk, and dreams that we together dreamed of. Shades of our bodies from the past remain in the streets we walked, parks we stopped by, and trees we touched.
Our heart has been heavy and in pain since we learned the passing of Dr. Cesar Andres-Miguel Suva at The Immigrant Education Society, an important collaborator for our project. Cesar and I crossed paths through our shared visions for food and environmental justice, centering the voices of refugee and migrant communities. Cesar ran the Gardens by Refugees and Other Newcomers Welcomed (GROW) project. The GROW program is intended for newcomers to Canada (especially for Syrian refugees) to build a community garden, grow plants, harvest plants, and create video-recorded cookbooks for the dishes they are most familiar with. One of the goals of this program was to foster sense of belonging for participants and increase their well-being through connection to the garden. It also sought to allow newcomers to position themselves as sources of knowledge in a context where they are often recipients of knowledge, contributing to infrastructure development in Calgary. The GROW project was featured in CBC news prior to the pandemic and inspired other community-based garden projects in Calgary. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are witnessing the urgent needs of food justice that largely impacts low-income racialized refugee and migrant communities. Our collaborative works were toward the goal of envisioning an equitable and sustainable city by mobilizing the deep knowledge of plants and environment of refugee and migrant communities. Cesar left this world too soon without seeing the maturity of our collaborative works.
During one of our walks, Cesar told me that the GROW project was close to his heart because it was his mother who taught him the joy and beauty of gardening. As a Filipino immigrant, his mother grew a wide range of vegetables she used to cook traditional cuisines. As a child, Cesar hesitantly helped his mother’s garden, he told me with laughter. It was only when he grew up that he came to deeply appreciate his mother’s sovereignty in growing food on her own and wisdom of knowing the plants. His deep appreciation and respect to his mother were the seeds of the GROW project.
Our paths were not without obstacles. As we walked together, we came to know constraints for the public to start a community garden. We also closely came to know bylaws associated with planting fruit trees and setting up gardens in public parks. We sometimes felt as there were walls in front of us. Cesar always brought his optimism and humor and made sure to let me know that our collaboration mattered to him. He was always humble and even told me that our conversations brought a lens of environmental justice to his works that directly served for the needs of refugee and migrant communities. It was indeed me, who learned a lot from him - and I was looking forward to learning more with Cesar.
As we carry on our project with our collective vision, we will continue to listen to Cesar’s voice. We will continue to learn from his humility and openness to the world. Facing the ongoing food injustice, we pressingly feel the importance of Cesar’s vision and voice. We hope to continue building a dream that we dreamed of together.
With our deepest gratitude to Dr. Cesar Andres-Miguel Suva.
Miwa Takeuchi, on behalf of all the collaborators of the Soil Camp
A photograph taken by a Soil Camper
Soil Camp 