OtherWise Wageningen

When:  June 20th from 5-7PM

Where: Forum C0221 (hybrid-online)

'Palestinian Seed Stories' by Vivien Sansour is the lecture culminating the seminar series 'Beyond Sustainability: Theorizing Post- and Anti-Capitalist Food Futures'.

To Eat Alone is to Die Alone* Oftentimes when Palestinian farmers put seeds in the ground, they mutter a quiet prayer, “may we eat and may we feed others”. This and many other linguistically profound sayings provide a lens into a cultural design based in the idea that our survival as individuals is connected to the well-being and survival of our community. In this time together we will be invited to let go of our commitments to and preconceptions with “reality” in order to allow ourselves to imagine alternative universes that are inspired by nature and her daring imagination. From the real to the fantastical, we will engage in a hybrid and intimate activity of being physically present with other living beings, while channeling this co-presence into a writing activity that will bring us deeper clarities about who we have been, who we are , and whom we would like to be. This session will take us through a short but profound trip into our own spirits, the spirits of other people, and the seeds that help us weave stories to navigate a world that is in a state of hospice. For instance, how did imagination, nature, and science come together to make it possible for humans to develop bread from a wild grass, and how might this relationship of co-creation between humans and other beings inform our future? These questions call for urgent contemplation, because many of the things we love are dying or are already gone. We will have to learn how to grieve, and even how to die, together, in order to rebirth a new world in which we become “better designers”, together. *A Palestinian Proverb

Vivien Sansour is an artist, storyteller, researcher, and conservationist.

She uses image, sketches, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for the protection of biodiversity as a cultural and political act. Vivien works with a global network of farmers and seed advocates to promote seed conservation and agrobiodiversity. As part of this effort, she founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, with the goals of finding and reintroducing threatened crop varieties and collecting stories to assert the ownership of seeds by communities.

More information about Vivien: https://viviensansour.com/

Join us in Impulse this Thursday for "Colonialism & Meat - how white supremacy and cattle changed the 'Americas'"

When: Thursday, June 20, 19:00-21:00
Where: Impulse, Speakers Corner

Did you ever wonder about white supremacy in regards to food? Or how weaponizing animals for enclosure of the commons and ecocide has gone hand in hand? In this event we’ll look at historical events around colonialism and cattle and ask questions about what multispecies justice could look like in the context of decolonizing land, culture and diet.

Chihiro Geuzebroek works as a multidisciplinary activist and artist on restoring and re-storying our relationship with earth and each other. She has been a climate justice speaker,organizer and creative since 2009. Her politics and her Dutch-Bolivian with Quechua ancestry has put her on a path of advocating solidarity for Indigenous struggles for land and environmental justice. She is co-founder of the decolonial foundation Aralez.

When: June 23rd from 3-5PM

Where: Belmonte Arboretum (Generaal Foulkesweg 94-A, Wageningen)

In the Belmonte Arboretum, one can find a great collection of trees from all around the world. However, the diversity of trees all refers to a monoculture narrative, which is Western modern science mood from classification, taxonomy and knowledge as possession. Yet the trees used to hold so many sacred relationships in their original territories in the temple of life. One may start to listen to their hidden stories when listening to the silence because silence has something to tell.

The approach where humans transform life into resources, as owners of the world, and transformed nature into an object of study, has brought us to a condition of Earthlessness and Worldlessness. However, it has not always been the way and it is certainly not our defining human nature. There are other worlds of meaning, where humans hold a radically different relationship to Earth. We want to learn together from these other worlds of meaning which have been protecting life. Like the trees, many of us are also uprooted from our territory, disconnected from our ancestral knowledges. How can we heal the relationships by remembering our roots and start weaving connections?

Weaving Realities invites you to a workshop where we activate our bodies and listen to the stories of the trees, the soil, the water and the wind, and sow a seed of memory.

If we can listen more deeply - within, to each other and the more than human world - this can transform our ability to be present and respond to all we witness in today’s world. Together at this retreat we will take time to slow down and embrace space for silence, joy and rest as radical practices. Through creating space to be more centred and grounded we can nurture the inner resources we need to face the challenges of being alive at this time. From 26th June - 30th of June 2024 we welcome you at our annual Spiritual Ecology retreat at Samye Ling Meditation Centre in Beaumont, Belgium. This retreat will focus on 'Resourcing Ourselves in Times of Transition'.