Celeste Smith
Celeste Smith is Oneida Nation, from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is an Indigenous scientist, educator and seedkeeper with over fifteen years of work at the intersection of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Indigenous human rights, ecological agriculture and public policy. She founded Cultural Seeds in 2018 and Ga Gitigemi Gamik — We Will Plant Lodge — at Kagawong in 2020.
Her knowledge comes from her family’s agricultural traditions and thirty years of growing, and she keeps learning through ceremony and mentorship with traditional healers and agricultural Knowledge Holders around the world.
Most of the teaching work starts in the same place the seeds do: with what was agreed on a piece of land, who agreed to it, and what that asks of whoever is farming it now.
- Founder & DirectorGa Gitigemi Gamik (We Will Plant Lodge), Kagawong — and Founder, Cultural Seeds
- North American Focal PointCivil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism, UN Committee on World Food Security — 2023–28 term appointment
- Board Vice PresidentFood Secure Canada
- Co-ChairInternational Programs Committee, National Farmers Union
- Indigenous Knowledge KeeperCanadian Association of Geographers
- DelegateLa Via Campesina, the movement of some 200 million peasants and small-scale food producers that coined food sovereignty — Climate Action Committee; 8th International Conference, Bogotá; Nyéléni Global Forum opening plenary speaker
- Northern Ontario Outreach CoordinatorEcological Farmers Association of Ontario
- FormerlyAdjunct Professor, Niagara College — School of Environment and Horticulture, and the Niagara College/DSBN dual credit programme
- EducationCertificate in Indigenous Human Rights and Policy, Columbia University · BA Political Science, Indigenous Studies and Social Sciences, Brock University · Cornell Small Farms Program · Seed Seva seasonal distance mentorship with Rowen White, Sierra Seeds
- RecognitionFinalist, MIT Solve Global Challenges 2023 — hosted at MIT in Boston to present Seeding Indigenous Solutions · Winner, i3 Indigenous Innovation Challenge · Pow Wow Pitch Ontario Winner · Indspire Scholar
The work itself.
Teaching & speaking
Keynotes, workshops and facilitated sessions.
See the sessions → The recordResearch & selected work
Current research, international work, media and publications.
See the record → Longer engagementsConsulting & advisory
Curriculum, programmes, policy and protocols.
What that looks like →