Turner, Bethaney

English

With millions of Australians enduring lockdown yet again, you may be seeking solace in gardening. For migrants and refugees in Australia, gardening can be particularly meaningful when shared in community spaces.But community gardens aren’t always sites of inclusion. In our recently published research, my colleagues and I highlight the ways migrants and refugees are excluded from community gardens — and how to change this

University of Canberra Research Repository

Academic rigour, journalistic flairBethaney TurnerAssociate Professor, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of CanberraWith millions of Australians enduring lockdown yet again, you may be seeking solace in gardening.For migrants and refugees in Australia, gardening can be particularly meaningful when shared incommunity spaces.But community gardens aren’t always sites of inclusion. In our recently published research, mycolleagues and I highlight the ways migrants and refugees are excluded from community gardens —and how to change this.When community gardens are socially inclusive, everyone benefits. Culturally diverse communitygardens can not only deepen cross-cultural social connections, they can even help develop the skills toadapt to change and crisis, such as from climate change.The benefits of community gardensShutterstock3 ways community gardens often exclude migrants andrefugees — and how to turn this aroundAugust 13, 2021 11.05am AESTWaiting lists to join community gardens are extremely long in many parts of Australia, with some gardens requiring up to an eight-year wait. Advocacy groups consistently call for more sites andgreater financial support to meet this demand.There are good reasons for their growing popularity. Improved mental and physical health and wellbeing regularly tops the list of their positive impacts, as they promote more exercise, greateraccess to nutritious food, strengthen community connections, and more.Read more: Green for wellbeing – science tells us how to design urban spaces that heal usThe food grown in community gardens can also help improve food security. During lockdown, thesesites have been vital to meet the everyday needs of many suffering from financial hardship.For refugees and migrants, communal gardening sites can be therapeutic, safe spaces.When immersed in supportive communities that share a commitment to productive gardening,migrants and refugees can improve their self-efficacy. The ability to grow culturally familiar foods canalso maintain their connections to homelands, easing the resettlement and migration process.This is why it’s so important to improve these opportunities and remove any barriers excluding thesegardeners. Our research reviewed worldwide studies of community gardens, and found commonbarriers to refugee and migrant participation revolve around three key areas:1. Physical and material features of gardensThis includes high membership fees, inability to easily travel to gardens and insecure land tenure.Site design that limits gardeners’ autonomy and ability to grow familiar foods is also a problem. Thiscan happen where there’s communal, rather than individual, plot cultivation, putting pressure on newgardeners to grow foods already well known to existing gardeners.Another barrier is a lack of available space and small plot sizes, which can make it harder to growculturally important crops, such as maize.2. Garden management stylesInclusive practices are often not embedded into information sharing and decision making, such as nottranslating information.Two men crouching in a community gardenCommunal gardens should be safe spaces. ShutterstockFor example, community gardens often rely on formal management meetings, but these may not takeinto account different languages, cultural traditions and unequal power relations.Relying on community gardens for food security can also be a big problem for refugees and migrants,especially for new arrivals. This can lead to gardens replacing more holistic social support programs.Read more: Running out of things to do in isolation? Get back in the garden with these ideas from 4 experts3. Privileging particular values and aestheticsThe way we care for gardens and ideas about how a productive garden should look, are often shapedby whatever cultural norm is dominant. Uniform, neatly mulched raised beds, free of weeds andoverhanging vegetation, are often favoured by risk averse councils.Migrant and refugee gardening styles can be at odds with accepted expectations and values like these.Many are used to cultivating directly into the soil and prefer to grow a wide variety of plants togetherthat may not look neat, but can increase biodiversity. They may also leave more space between cropsto improve yield.This means these familiar, productive and culturally appropriate ways of gardening for refugees andmigrants can be devalued and excluded, along with their skills and knowledge.The good news is we can make community gardens more socially inclusive places. To do this, thereneeds to be more investment from governments and local councils in resources (including land andfinancial support) for the largely volunteer groups developing and managing these sites.These resources need to assist migrants and refugees to:develop social and ecological connections that engender a sense of belongingcontribute to the design and management of gardens in culturally and linguistically inclusivewaysmake choices about how to tend their plots that enable some connection to their homelandengage with other garden members from all backgrounds to share knowledge and lessonsnot have to rely on the garden as a primary source of food or income generation.Gardens are better when migrants and refugees are includedMuslim woman tends to gardenVolunteer groups managing community gardens should be give more resources. ShutterstockCommunity gardens are currently off limits to many under lockdown. When we return to COVID-normal, the lessons from socially inclusive gardens could help communities better prepare for futuredisruption, particularly from climate change.Read more: From veggie gardening to op-shopping, migrants are the quiet environmentalistsResettlement in a different country involves ongoing adjustments to new social, ecological and climateconditions. We can all learn from migrant and refugee skills, knowledge, and the ways they adapt, asadjustment to unfamiliar environments often comes with careful tinkering and trial and error.When it comes to food gardens, past research has shown this experimentation can lead to boosting biodiversity and expanding diets, due to the variety of crops grown. One example is the introductionof maize to produce maize flour in many gardens throughout Australia. This is a diet staple for many African nations.The desire to grow culturally relevant foods means tinkering with soil and growing conditions, as wellas the plants themselves. This enables the plants to adapt to unfamiliar conditions, which will becomeincreasingly variable under climate change. Learning how to grow tropical plants in frosty parts of Victoria or on marginal soils are a couple of good examples.What’s more, gardeners from diverse backgrounds can increase a community’s repertoire of safe, low-tech cultivation and pest management techniques. This includes how to make the most of the wastefrom culturally familiar foods, such as Japanese gardeners’ use of tofu residue as a soil conditioner.Not only will bringing together culturally diverse community members foster more meaningfulconnections, but also it will strengthen our shared ability to adapt to the uncertainty of a changingclimate.The author would like to acknowledge Jessica Abramovic and Cathy Hope who helped compile theresearch upon which this article is based.Bok Choi in soilThe desire to grow foods from the homeland can lead to gardening techniques that can sustain future changes in climate.Shutterstock

3 ways community gardens often exclude migrants and refugees — and how to turn this around

https://researchsystem.canberra.edu.au/ws/files/53125280/3_ways_community_gardens_often_exclude_migrants_and_refugees_and_how_to_turn_this_around.pdf

3 ways community gardens often exclude migrants and refugees — and how to turn this around

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