BY ANDREA PALFRAMAN
Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust
Salt Spring Island’s foodways have sustained people for thousands of years. Yet today, the majority of the food consumed on the island is imported. A new two-part public series hosted by the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust (SSIFT) invites the community to explore how this shift occurred — and what the island’s agricultural past can teach us about building a more resilient food future.
Hosted as part of SSIFT’s Root to Bloom Centre, the series brings together leading researchers and local historians to examine the full arc of Salt Spring’s food systems, from Indigenous land stewardship to settler-era farming and beyond.
Both events take place at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga, with the sessions also available via Zoom.
Part One: Indigenous Food Systems
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 6 to 8 p.m.
The first event features Chris Arnett, historian, archaeologist and author, who will guide participants through the deep history of Indigenous food systems on Salt Spring Island and throughout the Gulf Islands.
Drawing on Coast Salish oral traditions (snuwuyulh), archaeology and collaboration with local nations’ knowledge keepers and elders, Arnett explores how Indigenous peoples thrived in this ecosystem for millennia. Topics include clam gardens, camas cultivation, controlled burning to support deer populations and plant growth, and the laws, teachings and stories that governed sustainable land use.
The presentation also examines how settlers later appropriated landscapes that had been carefully managed for generations, often without understanding the seasonal patterns and relationships that sustained families and communities. Using physical evidence such as shell middens, burial sites and rock art, Arnett brings familiar island places to life with layered stories of connection, conflict and continuity.
Arnett holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and is widely respected for his work on the Indigenous and colonial histories of the Gulf Islands. He is the author of The Terror of the Coast and Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand.
Part Two: Farming, Settlement and Agricultural Change
Tuesday, Jan. 27, 6 to 8 p.m.
The second event, A History of Farming on Salt Spring, shifts the focus to settler agriculture and the evolution of farming on the island. Led by Usha Rautenbach and Charles Kahn, this evening explores the food systems introduced by settlers — including Hawaiian, Japanese and Black farmers — and how their labour, skills and crops shaped Salt Spring’s agricultural landscape.
Drawing on archival research, lived experience and the foundational work Farms Farmers Farming 1859–1939 by agricultural historian Mort Stratton, the presentation traces Salt Spring’s transformation into a regional agricultural hub by the turn of the 20th century. During this period, the island earned a reputation as a breadbasket of the province, with orchardists shipping thousands of 40-pound boxes of apples annually.
Rautenbach played a key role in bringing Stratton’s manuscript to publication, meticulously indexing the work and providing essential historical context. She approaches agricultural history as living knowledge, illuminating both what was recorded and what was often left out.
Kahn, author of Salt Spring: The Story of an Island and former president of the Salt Spring Island Historical Society, brings decades of research and community involvement. His work situates farming within broader social, economic and environmental forces, helping connect historical land-use decisions to present-day challenges around food security and land access.
Together, these two events offer a rare opportunity to understand Salt Spring Island’s foodways as a continuum — from Indigenous stewardship practices that sustained life for thousands of years, through settler farming systems that reshaped the land, to the challenges facing local food systems today.
As Salt Spring Island grapples with food sovereignty, climate resilience and access to farmland, this series invites community members to reflect on the lessons of the past and consider how they might inform a more just and sustainable future.
Registration is through ssifarmlandtrust.org.