Mixed Media Installation, Zine, Single-Channel Video

All that Sustains Us is a participatory project created by Mast Year Collective that invites community members to share stories of meals and recipes that evoke a vivid connection to a particular environment. We explore how food - from making, to sharing, to eating - is entwined and grounded in our environments both past and present. This zine is a result of slowly unfolding conversations, traded stories, and gestures of generosity.

To be part of a residency whose theme is “Environment”, it is integral for us to acknowledge that we are situated on stolen land. Mast Year Collective is based on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe and the Huron-Wendat, who are the original owners and custodians of the land on which we stand and create.

The land we are situated on is part of the “Dish With One Spoon”, a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land.

Haudenosaunee scholar Ruth Koleszar-Green describes the agreement as neve taking more than we need, ensuring that we leave something for others and care for the land. As guests on this land we are also bound by this treaty and have a responsibility to uphold its intentions.

We invite you all to reflect on this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect, and consider how food can be a starting point to join the proverbial table to take care of one another and our collective futures.