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Convocation
REM alumnus fosters connections between people and nature and Indigenizes curriculum with new food forest at SFU
Leaving high school, Maria Preoteasa was pretty certain she would spend the next few years studying psychology at UBC. However, after exploring SFU’s resource and environmental management program (REM), she found a fit for her love of nature and interest in topics like food systems, geography and transportation.
“I didn’t want to feel confined to one thing,” she says. “Once I read more about the course requirements for REM, I got more excited about it and the possibilities of being a student who gets to explore so many different types of classes.”
The new alumnus followed this sense of curiosity throughout her degree, leading her to explore topics of social and environmental resilience internationally and locally, and make change here on SFU’s Burnaby campus.
Within her first couple years at SFU, Preoteasa explored different disciplines and learning opportunities, opting to take electives in archaeology, Indigenous studies and geography, all of which she says have contributed to her understanding and appreciation of the natural world.
She also participated in SFU’s Semester in Dialogue program where, alongside a few classmates, she dove into the Vancouver 2050 plan’s goal to create a prepared, safe and resilient city. Together they focused on building resilient connections between youth, local businesses and organizations while collecting feedback on youth experiences in the city and their emergency preparedness.
As she began her final year of her undergraduate studies in fall 2023, Preoteasa and her classmate submitted a proposal to the Faculty to develop the Food Forest Outdoor Learning Space (FFOLS). Within months, she saw the project come to fruition and received a 2024 FENV Changemaker Award for her efforts to protect nature-based skills and Indigenize curriculum.
The project was a culmination of many of her experiences at SFU that began with taking courses led by Tammara Soma on sustainable food systems, and Jason Brown on forest management, where she first learned about food forests — a practice spanning thousands of years that has been used by many Indigenous cultures around the world.
Feeling inspired by the deep history of food forests, the following semester she completed her REM capstone project on food forest policy, culture and biodiversity in Vancouver, diving deeper into the benefits of fostering these spaces.
After taking her studies abroad on a field school in Indonesia and seeing a food forest in action at a local school, the idea to foster a communal food forest at SFU cemented itself.
“I think my journey at the end of my degree really took me to food forests, and I followed that thread to ultimately co-create the FFOLS as it is today,” she reflects. “Being a part of the food forest here at SFU has been amazing for me, and I get to connect to nature in so many different ways.”
The FFOLS has now served as the location for various events including tree planting activities and eco-art workshops and has been the setting for ARCH 200: Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being on the Land — which Preoteasa supported as a research assistant.
“I got to assist with the syllabus, research, teaching, and learning journey of the course and it has been a deeply enriching experience for me as a settler working on ways to Indigenize the curriculum,” she says. “As Indigenous education and ways of learning gain more favour in the mainstream education circles, I think we will see lots of positive changes that consider how we educate people through a more holistic lens, which is inextricably tied to the land, and a return to the human role of stewards of nature rather than as dominators over nature, and extractors of its gifts.”
While she walks across the stage this June, her work with food forests is only beginning. Throughout the summer, Preoteasa will continue her work with the FFOLS, ensuring it is well maintained as she starts up the Burnaby Urban Food Forest Foundation (BUFFF) — a non-profit sister society to the Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation.
“During my journey with food forests, I have learned more about the importance of self-location in Indigenous Knowledge research, and my role in the academic system as an uninvited settler,” she says. “I want to acknowledge that I am researching and engaging with a practice that is estimated to date over 13,000 years ago, and which has been practiced by Indigenous cultures around the globe in forested biomes.”
Interested in learning more about the FFOLS? Check out @foodforestsfu & @burnabyurbanfoodforest on Instagram for upcoming events, plant facts and more.