The Community Table: Building Abolition Democracies through Food Justice

• In Event: Imagining Abolitionist Futures

Abstract

This paper will share findings from a Participatory Action Research study focused on building abolitionist community through cooking circles, storytelling and collaborative cookbook development alongside women on parole in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in an understanding of law and citizenship as embodied, enacted and lived in community – teachings from Indigenous law and legal theory - I will share reflections on how foundational principles of safety, dignity, respect and fairness are upheld and negotiated through this food justice community building process. Findings, drawn from my recently completed doctoral dissertation, include individual and collective ways confront the carceral logic of the Canadian parole system with and through food, and methodological implications of doing the beautiful and messy work of abolition in community spaces.

Author

• Kelsey Timler, University of British Columbia