Students gather in celebration of the Fall Harvest with the IEC and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives
The IEC hosts the second annual Fall Harvest Dinner and Dialogue, featuring Indigenous stories and traditions.
On November 6, amid National Indigenous Education Month, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM)’s International Education Centre (IEC) partnered with the Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII) to host a dinner for meaningful dialogue centred on the fall harvest. Hosted in the Student Centre Presentation Room from 5 to 7 p.m., the sold-out event attracted over 40 students and featured a listening session on Indigenous fall harvest traditions, storytelling, and a shared meal.
The dinner was “[led] by the Indigenous tradition of the Fall Harvest,” according to an Instagram post by the IEC and OII. The organizers intended the dinner to provide a welcoming space for students to “celebrate the season of gratitude and togetherness through cultural sharing, storytelling, and community connections.”
Attendees seated themselves throughout the venue at tables decorated in autumn decor while lo-fi music played in the background. There was also a buffet featuring a traditional fall harvest feast, including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and mixed vegetables.
Jordan Jamieson, an Indigenous Student Support Specialist at the UTM OII, from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, led the event by sharing what it means to give thanks to the land and its resources. He works alongside Faith Desmoulin, the Coordinator of Indigenous programming at the OII, to bring Anishinaabemowin speakers to teach classes at UTM. This integration of Indigenous language began recently, in September of the 2025-26 academic year.
Jamieson acknowledged the presence of Indigenous spaces on campus, such as the Maanjiwe nendamowinan (MN) building, and spread knowledge on the maple, birch, pine and cedar trees, which provided for the Indigenous peoples during their time of harvest.
Common around the UTM campus, the pine tree features heavily in traditional teas in the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee cultures. It also contains vitamin C, and during the time the pilgrims came, it was used to help cure scurvy and continues to be used as a salve.
The maple tree helped provide for the Ojibwe and Anishinaabe people when they had food shortages towards the end of winter. As Indigenous people are nomadic, constantly moving throughout the seasons, they know to stop collecting syrup in the fall when the tree leaves change from green to yellow.
Cedar trees can also be found on campus near the MN building, the Lislehurst Principal’s Residence, and cedar bushes which are located near the MiWay bus stop in front of the Kaneff Centre. Indigenous people use cedar trees in their medicine, and when taken from the trees, dried tobacco is usually given back to the land as a way of giving thanks.
Birch bark trees are also used by Anishinaabe people, such as to make paper or scrolls, baskets, and canoes.
Along with the trees, there are three main feast foods the Anishinaabe peoples include during fall harvest celebrations and winter preparations: wild rice, maple syrup, and wild berries. Wild rice is interconnected with the creation story and migration for the Anishinaabe people, and maple syrup has deep ties with sustaining nations during food shortages.
Jamieson explained the process of collecting wild rice, describing taking canoes out on rivers, knocking the rice grain into canoes using poles, and using birch bark baskets to toss the grains into the air, which separates the rice from the surrounding husks, a process called winnowing. The process also includes a traditional song shared by Jamieson called the Bowam, which is sung while dancing over the wild rice as it is cooking.
The future for Dinner and Dialogues
Some attendees expressed that they haven’t celebrated Fall Harvest before, while others expressed that last year’s Dinner and Dialogues was the first time they celebrated the fall harvest.
In an interview with The Medium following the event, Samuel Kamalendran, a programming team lead for the IEC, discussed the importance and uniqueness of hosting Dinner and Dialogues. “The event is unique in how it has a very considerable budget, allowing us to cater food to participants—our events are the largest in the department. [We use] that vehicle to promote intercultural discussion about cultures celebrated at UTM.”
As this is only the second year of Dinner and Dialogues and the first time the IEC collaborated with the OII for the series, the IEC hopes to continue this event for future students. Kamalendran shared his personal experience working alongside the OII, stating, “I enjoyed being able to share knowledge directly from someone Indigenous—that’s a first for us and something I want to continue.”
In an interview with The Medium, Jamieson expressed that the event is “a chance for students to connect with Indigenous presence and spaces.” As a new support staff for Indigenous students at UTM, he intends to use “different Indigenous pedagogies like land-based, intergenerational, relational ways of learning.”
He also pointed out that the OII will host its next event during International Education Week. Information on events happening during the Education Week can be found on the OII’s website.
To attend future IEC Dinner and Dialogues, check out the IEC website or Instagram page. The next iteration of the program will celebrate Christmas on December 4.
