Food from Mother Earth and Collective Tremembé Knowledge

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Title: Food from Mother Earth and Collective Tremembé Knowledge

Location: UBC Farm Yurt
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Time: 10 – 11:30AM

Mateus Tremembé is a young Indigenous leader, agroecological farmer, and advocate for climate justice from the Tremembé of Barra do Mundaú Indigenous Lands in Ceará, Brazil. He serves as the coordinator of the Network for Just Transitions in Food Systems, the Tremembé Climate Project, and the Tremembé Schools of the Earth Project. Mateus works in collaboration with Indigenous farmers, youth, and guardians of traditional knowledge to strengthen ancestral food systems, restore ecological relationships, and defend territorial rights in the face of colonial development pressures. In this talk, Mateus will share reflections from the Tremembé experience in reclaiming food sovereignty and building climate resilience through Indigenous science and solidarity. He will also discuss the development of the methodology known as Community-Driven Adaptation Research (C-DAR), which connects territorial communities in Brazil and internationally, using participatory methods and emerging technologies to amplify Indigenous voices in climate adaptation planning. Mateus’ work reminds us that the future of climate justice lies not only in new technologies, but in the enduring and reciprocal relationships between people, the land, and food — relationships that have been cultivated over generations and are essential for our collective survival.

This talk is co-hosted by EDST’s Dr. Cash Ahenakew, CRC in Indigenous Peoples’ Well-being and Dr. Sharon Stein, Professor of Climate Complexity and Coloniality in Higher Education. It is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the UBC Centre for Sustainable Food Systems.