All Indigenous growers, land stewards and community members are welcome to attend this webinar free of charge! Please use the coupon code PLANTS2025 when filling out the registration form to receive free admission.

Starting with the condensed teaching of the four stages of creation, with humankind being the fourth and final stage, we learn about our fragility and interdependence with all those who have come before us. The Anishinabe have cultivated a reciprocal relationship with our plant ancestors, understanding that life-healing medicine is constantly being offered and communicated through the plants. During Winter, the earth’s resting time, the Anishinabe share these teachings, enriching our connection to the land and preparing us for the planting season ahead.

This webinar is part of EFAO’s Indigenous Outreach and Engagement Initiative, which is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness.

Chef Johl Whiteduck is the owner of NishDish Marketeria and Catering, an award-winning small business that’s been reclaiming and serving traditional Anishinaabe food since 2005. Chef Johl’s journey of Indigenous Food Sovereignty has led him to founding Ojibiikaan Indigenous Cultural Network, along with the first Indigenous Harvesters & Artisans market. He has spearheaded Indigenous gardens and a small business dedicated to Indigenous gardens called Miinikaan Innovation and Design, and numerous community partnerships. His creation in 2017 of an Indigenous Culinary Arts curriculum, a ceremonial in-depth land and food-based program, led to some of the first traditionally planted Three Sisters gardens in the GTA. The gifts to Chef Johl of centuries-old ancestral seeds started the ongoing development of an extensive Indigenous seed bank. The expansion of NishDish’s Indigenous food gardens around the city laid the groundwork for the birth of a brand-new organization that Chef Johl founded in 2018, called Ojibiikaan Indigenous Cultural Network. He is the founding Board President of the first and only not-for-profit dedicated to Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the GTA.