A unique event focused on reconciliation, relationship-building, and shared land stewardship is coming to southern Saskatchewan at the end of the month. The Treaty Land Sharing Network (TLSN) will be hosting a traditional feast and learning event at Box H Farms, near Gladmar, on May 31st from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event, organized by TLSN’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, will bring together Indigenous elders, harvesters, and knowledge keepers with farmers and ranchers from across the province. Attendees will begin the day with a traditional feast and ceremony, followed by a guided visit to native prairie lands stewarded by hosts Mark and Laura Hoimyr.
Valerie Zink, operations manager and co-founder of TLSN, explained the significance of both the event and the network's broader mission.
“Treaty Land Sharing Network is a group of rural landholders and Indigenous people who've come together to affirm treaty relationships and to share land for mutual benefit, as treaties always intended,” she said. “We work to expand the base of land that Indigenous people can safely access for harvesting traditional foods and medicines, and to normalize the integration of these Indigenous land uses in agriculture.”
Zink emphasized that the upcoming event is about more than land access. It’s about connection and understanding.
“It’s an opportunity to share knowledge across these cultures and strengthen relationships between Indigenous and agricultural communities, both of which are deeply connected to land,” she said. “And to connect Indigenous participants with this native prairie that's stewarded by the Hoimyrs, which they're welcome to access, not just on the 31st, but on an ongoing basis.”
The TLSN aims to shift the conversation around reconciliation by putting land and the treaties governing it at the centre.
“We’re really trying to centre land in how we think about reconciliation,” Zink noted. “Treaties are not land surrenders, as many of us were taught in school. They're frameworks for coexistence, for shared use of land, and for relationships of mutual responsibility. These are living agreements that are just as relevant to us today as they were at the time of their negotiation.”
The May 31st event is open to the public, and those interested in attending or learning more about the Treaty Land Sharing Network can visit their website or follow the organization on Facebook and Instagram.