+ Chef Johl Whiteduck Ringuette is Anishnawbe and Algonquin. he was born in North Bay, Ontario and his grandmother is from Nippissing First Nation. His clan is Mink clan. Johl was raised on wild game, fishing and seasonal berry-picks and cooking over the fire. Chef Johl is the owner of NishDish Marketeria and Catering, which specializes in Anishnawbe cuisine since 2005. He is one of Tkaronto’s leading First Nations food sovereigntists and has dedicated his life to identifying, sourcing, relearning and reclaiming what the traditional Anishnawbe diet is. His unwavering...

commitment to this vision has broadened his work beyond NishDish. He is a public speaker on many topics related to food sovereignty and social entrepreneurship, and has taught countless food demos and traditional food skills workshops.

Johl is a teacher of one of the only Anishnawbe land-based culinary arts program, Ojibiikaan Indigenous Culinary Arts Program. This led to some of the first traditionally planted Three Sisters gardens in the GTA. The gifts to Johl of centuries-old ancestral seeds started the ongoing development of an extensive Indigenous seed bank. The expansion of NishDish’s Indigenous food gardens around the city laid the groundwork for the birth of a brand new not-for-profit organization that Chef Johl founded in 2018, called Ojibiikaan Indigenous Cultural Network.

In 2012 Chef Johl co-founded RUN, Red Urban Nation, a grassroots project that envisioned a focused Indigenous community district in Toronto. In December 2017 he founded TIBA, the Toronto Indigenous Business Association, renewing the pursuit of an Anishnawbe district for Toronto and building a strong coalition of First Nations social entrepreneurs and business owners.

Johl launched the Indigenous Harvesters and Artisans Market at the Bickford Centre in 2018 and 2019, with multiple partnerships, where he curated a series of murals painted by Indigenous artists.

Chef Johl received Aboriginal Businessman of the Year award in 2013. He is a featured co-host of MasterChef Canada for a special Indigenous food challenge episode in 2019.

+ Lara Lucretia Mrosovsky is a gardener, educator and artist. She specializes in rooftop gardens that produce food. Gardening has always been part of her family, from her parents to her Danish, British, Russian and Italian ancestors.

Lara has 15 years of experience teaching garden skills and visual art to community groups. Her first self-published...

book An Illustrated Guide to Growing Food On Your Balcony outsold bestsellers. In 2019 Lara has launched another gardening guide, Grow Without A Garden: 101 Plants for Containers.

Since 2003 Lara has been dedicated to teaching and learning about growing food in small spaces. She especially values sharing information about growing healthy food with those living in high-rise areas and inner city.

From 2011-2020 Lara coordinated the first intensive green roof atop a Community Health Centre in Ontario. She designed and established productive gardens on the 6,000 square foot green roof at AccessPoint on Danforth and created the community programs to bring it to life. In 2014 Lara was awarded the Community Engagement Award from the AOHC (Association of Ontario Health Centres). Lara has worked as a consultant for the City of Toronto’s Environment Office on their “Get Growing” a public education project to promote growing food in small spaces. She is currently on the board of directors of Green Thumbs Growing Kids.

As a visual artist, Lara works in illustration and printmaking. An important part of her art studio, Jakarundi Graphics, is facilitating collaborative art-making workshops.

+ Carolynne brings a wealth of experience about the food and medicine plants, and Indigenous teachings about the land.

Carolynne has Mi'kmaw, Black and Irish ancestry and is from the East Coast, known today as Nova Scotia. She is dedicated to social and environmental justice and supporting Indigenous led community work related to food sovereignty and food security. Carolynne is passionate about reconnecting people with the land, waters, and all beings as there is no separation between us. From many Indigenous perspectives ...

they are all our relations to be treated with as much love, respect, and reciprocity as we do with our human loved ones. Carolynne leads workshops that support the development and strengthening of healthy and reciprocal relationships based upon Indigenous knowledge that decolonize existing interactions with the land and with each other. She also shares Indigenous life ways such as bird language and harvesting ‘wild’ foods and medicines from the land.

Carolynne is founder of Msit No’kmaq, which means “All My Relations” in Mi’kmaw. Msit No’kmaq aims to support people in reconnecting with themselves, each other, and the land, waters, and all beings through land-based workshops, talks, walks and retreats.

Her expertise includes certified Forest Therapy Guide, Mentor and Trainer of the practice, Blanket Exercise Facilitator, and member of the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle.

Previously, Carolynne worked with one of Canada’s largest food security organizations for the past decade. She has worked with Indigenous community members within the city of Toronto and with Cree communities along the James Bay area. She is a Co-Producer of an upcoming documentary, Reckoning with the Wendigo, that focusing upon the resiliency of the Cree People along the James Bay who are impacted by continual threats from colonial systems. Carolynne is also a Holistic Nutritionist, and has worked as a Child & Youth Worker for more than twenty years. She applies this knowledge in all of her current work.