Farmers, Indigenous land users come together to launch new land sharing network in Saskatchewan

Much-needed alliance is a concrete step toward land-based reconciliation and implementing the Treaty relationship.

Farmers, ranchers, and Indigenous land users from across Saskatchewan gathered at a farm in Bladworth, SK, today to launch the newly formed Treaty Land Sharing Network (TLSN). The grassroots group is made up of farmers and ranchers who have come together to share land as treaties intended, and to actively welcome Indigenous people to practice their way of life on the land that they farm. Land within the network can be accessed for gathering plants and medicines, hunting, holding ceremony, and other uses.

Over 80 people attended the launch, which included a pipe ceremony organized by the Office of the Treaty Commissioner followed by a lunch and social gathering. Members took home signs to post on their land welcoming Indigenous land users. A directory of land accessible through the network is also now online on the group’s website (treatylandsharingnetwork.ca).

“The Treaty Land Sharing Network is a welcome and much-needed alliance with farmers and ranchers who want to share their land and the medicines that are on it,” says Joely BigEagle Kequahtooway with Buffalo People Arts Institute, who attended the launch. “This is a tangible example of reconciliation in action.”

With ongoing privatization of Crown land and stricter trespassing legislation, land access is becoming increasingly difficult for Indigenous people. “Without access to land, we cannot exercise our Inherent rights and meet the needs of our communities,” says Bradley Desjarlais, a hunter and committee member of the Anishnabek Nation Treaty Authority. “The Treaty Land Sharing Network is not only opening access to privately held land, it is opening a possibility to build respectful and positive relationships based on the Treaty principles of mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

For Mary Smillie, who hosted the event at her grain and livestock farm with her husband Ian McCreary, the Treaty Land Sharing Network is an opportunity for people to take action at a grassroots level. “This is a small but important step that we can take as farmers toward upholding our responsibilities as Treaty people,” says Smillie. “It’s something concrete that we can do to begin to build a more just future for the prairies.”

“It is the people who will lead Treaty implementation,” says Treaty Commissioner Mary Culbertson, who attended the launch. “We see that here today.”

Mary Smillie and Ian McCreary post the first Treaty Land Sharing Network sign at their farm in Bladworth, SK, accompanied by Treaty Commissioner Mary Culbertson and Bradley Desjarlais from the Anishnabek Nation Treaty Authority. Photo: Breeana Kateri.

Farmers, ranchers, and Indigenous land users gather for the launch of the Treaty Land Sharing Network at the farm of Mary Smillie and Ian McCreary in Bladworth, SK, on July 15th. Photo: Breeana Kateri.