These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity.

Melina Ghasem-Asad helps her fellow immigrant students get their hands in Canadian soil so they can explore the relationship their ancestors had to the land. She is a Starfish Canada 2026 Climate75 Fellow.

Tell us about your projects.

I worked at York University’s Maloca Community Gardens, which centres Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge to teach sustainable regenerative organic farming. As president of the student club Many Green Hands, I drew students in with workshops and seminars. I also designed and facilitated a six-week certificate program for urban farmers. I ran programs aimed at encouraging racialized and queer people to explore how a relationship to the soil might increase their own resilience. Now, I continue to work in the garden as part of my masters thesis research exploring racialized, diasporic relationships to the land as practices of memory, resistance and belonging. 

The Indigenous knowledge keepers at the garden shared their teachings and encouraged us to explore our own cultures’ ancient........

© National Observer