Let’s get cooking!

Why take action around World Food Day?

World Food Day is dedicated to ending hunger by the year 2030. Secure indigenous and community land rights are essential to stopping land grabs that threaten our global food security.

This year’s mobilisation is an opportunity for all of us to build understanding for land rights by highlighting the connection to food – so that urban and general audiences can grasp how land grabs threaten all of our futures. World Food Day is an important moment for land rights activists to band together with small farmers, ecological movements, urban foodies and those concerned with food security so that they all continue to carry forward the pressure for land rights. We all have to join together to stop the threats to our lands and waters.

Together, we will make a strong, global call for governments to adopt, implement and enforce strong laws protecting indigenous and community land rights – and for corporations to respect them. Many people, including policymakers, have rarely thought seriously about these rights and the benefits we all reap: this year, we want to show how these strong laws actually protect our food and our planet, now and for the long term.

Your voice matters

You are an important part of the Land Rights Now movement. This movement only exists because thousands of people around the world feel passionately about the need to stand up for indigenous and community land rights and to work in solidarity across the world. It’s so powerful to see how the big (and little!) initiatives worldwide add up to a deafening roar of voices for justice and recognition.

World Food Day is a time for us to make our movement even bigger and link our struggles to others.

Actions you can take

1. Join an event

Land Rights Now groups and participants like you have already come up with lots of event ideas – we will post a map so that you can find out whether there is an event planned in your area that you can join & strengthen. You can also write to us to find out whether something is already planned (contact@landrightsnow.org).

2. Organise your own event

Nothing happening near you? Organize your own mealtime gathering -- if possible, over indigenous or local community foods! You can invite the media, or ask policymakers to sit down with land rights activists over a meal. You can work with chefs to showcase ingredients originating from indigenous and local community lands. You can hold a march or rally with a favorite indigenous or local community food as your symbol. Or you can march, rally, hold a candlelit vigil, festival, workshop, or other event to raise awareness of Land Rights Now and protect our foods and our planet.

Be sure to tell us about your plans (contact@landrightsnow.org) so we can spread the word about your event.

Choosing an event that works for you

The most important question is what kind of event will help you achieve your goals?

Are you trying to get a law passed? If so, whose support do you need? Which alliances could help you build your power to get the law passed? How can your event help you build a coalition with these potential allies?

Do you want to raise the profile of land rights so that the media covers the issue more favorably? Can outreach to a celebrity chef help you do that? Are there other celebrities who might be interested in indigenous and community foods (or land rights) who can help you reach the media and the attention of policymakers?

Are you trying to protect land rights activists who are under threat? Will outreach via food-focused themes help you get new supporters or link you to urban audiences? Or do you want to focus on getting civil society, religious groups, unions and others together for a march, vigil or other solidarity action?

• Think about which individuals, groups or new audiences will really help you move you toward your goals of securing indigenous and community land rights – and how you can either involve them in your event or tailor an event to make sure that they hear your message loud and clear.
• Feel free to reach out to contact@landrightsnow.org to brainstorm, bounce some ideas around, or to learn about what kinds of ideas other groups with similar aims have been proposing.

Examples of events

Flash mob meal

Hold a “flashmob”-type meal in a train station (or other public space with a lot of people), invite passers-by and shoot some video [where to send] - and together we can make an amazing video of people sitting down together over great food in train stations all over the world.

What you’ll need:

• A table or somewhere to put and serve the food
• Seating for people if you want it - a few folding chairs or maybe even blankets
• Some food with indigenous/local community-produced ingredients
• Whatever you need to share the food -- it might be just napkins, or plates, forks/knives/spoons, a serving spoon. If you want to bring drinks, you’ll need some cups, too.
• You might want to make a sign or print a banner with the Land Rights Now logo {link}, and you’d need a way to display the sign or someone to hold it for you.
• Someone to take photos and video (we can send you a video guide so that we can more easily put the different video clips from around the world together)
• A few friends or fellow activists who can help you set up, support you, talk to passers-by, serve food and explain what you’re doing.
• Don’t forget to upload and send in your photos and video right after the event so that we can put together the global video
• Don’t forget to check if you need a permit to do this!- authorization to do the mobilization with the place!
• And of course; share your activity on social media with #LandRightsNow

Events with a bigger reach:

• Top idea: To engage with new audiences, work with a celebrity chef to do a show featuring indigenous and local community recipes, or to collect and share indigenous and local community recipes. See if you can get a famous chef or chefs to help with lobbying or media outreach on land rights.
• Top idea: Organise a march or rally with representatives from different groups - farmers, civil society, Indigenous People and local communities, political groups, etc - and raise your demands. You might want to have images of a specific popular food connected to indigenous and local community lands and call to “Save the {specific food}” to draw a link between land rights, land grabs and a specific food.
• Organise a roundtable discussion with decision makers & local communities with local community and indigenous foods. Invite indigenous and local community members to sit down with lawmakers, journalists, influencers and talk about how land rights are important to keeping us fed and healthy.

Other event ideas

• Get people together to do a public event featuring indigenous and local community foods. You might want to have a picnic or meal with folding chairs in front of the Parliament or government offices or a key lawmaker’s home and invite politicians to join you.
• Build solidarity by inviting representatives from different groups -- farmers, unions, political parties, indigenous and local community groups -- to come together for a meal. Everyone can bring a dish that’s special to them, or that includes some indigenous or local community foods. Use the time to get to know each other’s interests and priorities, and to discuss some plans for how you can support one another!
• Food inspires us -- feel free to use your imagination!

What should I make or bring?

Here are a few places to find indigenous recipes -- but please reach out to Indigenous Peoples and local communities to find what’s most popular in your area, as what is here is what we found in English, and is certainly not representative of your local foods. Don’t feel like you need to make something complicated - the purpose is to showcase indigenous and local community foods. You could even bring raw fruits or vegetables that are typical of or grown in indigenous and community lands.

• From Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Australia) - https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/images/uploads/publications/4423_HF__Koori_Cookbook_FA_WEB.pdf
• From Indigenous Food First in Canada - http://iffculture.ca/recipes/
• And Indigenous Food Systems in Canada - https://www.indigenousfoodsystems.org/recipes

Tips for organizing your event:

• Find some compelling speakers and participants who will inspire people to care about land rights.
• Try to bring new audiences and groups together - this is a special opportunity.
• Get someone to take photos and video of your event and be ready to share them with contact@landrightsnow.org early so that we can draw attention to what you’ve done.
• Try to get the Land Rights Now logo {LINK} in the picture/video, on a banner or print-outs.
• Engage people – use this as a moment to build interest, enthusiasm and hope.
• If you can get celebrities or people with big networks to attend, you might open new doors and reach new audiences for your issue.
• Invite the media and tell them why you’re there and what you’re asking for. Make it easy for them to film or write the story that you want to tell. 
• Find out which indigenous or local community-produced foods people have the most connection to – is there a beloved food or dish that’s a familiar part of many urban diets, for example? This could help people understand that they have a direct connection to these foods.
• Don’t try to do it all yourself - get help from partner organizations and try to have fun! Don’t worry about everything being perfect, the bigger purpose is to host a conversation and draw the link between food and indigenous and community land rights.
• Of course, don’t do anything that will put yourself or your supporters at unwanted risk.

Share your food! Social media campaign

RECIPES FOR CHANGE

As part of the campaign, we are collecting indigenous and local community recipes and will ask participants, chefs and influencers to share these, using the hashtags #LandRightsNow and #ZeroHunger. Feel free to send us a favorite recipe at contact@landrightsnow.org. We’ll send more details with the social media package in a few weeks.

KEEP OUR PLATES FULL

We are also inviting you (and everyone!) to post pictures of yourself, your family or simply your plates of food as you sit down to a meal. If your meal includes foods produced by Indigenous People or Local Communities, even better! Take a picture and post it using the hashtag #LandRightsNow.

Write a message like “Land rights = food rights. We demand #landrightsnow to keep our plates full”

Spread the word on social media

During the World Food Day mobilization (15-26 October), Land Rights Now will put a spotlight on several land rights stories around the world and share suggestions of ways you can show your solidarity and call for action. Make sure to share and disseminate as widely as possible. A social media package will be available around the end of August.

Look out for the stories on the Land Rights Now website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

LEFT OFF FROM HERE

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Social media tips

• Share the global petition to support land rights far and wide!
• Use hashtag #LandRightsNow and the World Food Day hashtag which we will share once the United Nations has finalized it.
• Post about your mobilisation event
• Share live videos and photos
• Write and share stories

• Share Land Rights Now sharegraphics
• Promote online petitions
• Share your photos and videos on social media channels

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What Land Rights Now can offer:

• A narrative with facts, data, and policy asks on land rights and climate change
• Press release template that can be used locally, nationally, or internationally
• A global petition that you can then deliver in your national/local context - it will showcase the huge worldwide support for indigenous and local community land rights.

• Social media materials and a digital platform where actions will be highlighted
• Inspiring stories of land rights heroes who are protecting our planet, particularly women
• Brainstorming and advice - write to contact@landrightsnow.org

Make sure to take action!

Even small actions count

Take 10 minutes to:

• Sign and share the global petition widely
• Share the graphics and recipes
• Take and submit a photo to #LandRightsNow on your favorite social media
• Read a Land Rights Now case study
• Comment on a blog post

If you have more time, you can:

• Make and submit a video
• Reach out to local media
• Go to an event or rally
• Organise a food event or workshop
• Share live video and photos
• Write a blog or share a personal story

In 2017, there were 46 mobilisations in 29 countries – let’s make 2018 just as exciting and come away with many new friends and allies for our work!