The Indigenous Terra Madre Network Room: A New Highlight at Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre 2014

The Indigenous Terra Madre Network Room (ITM Network Room) was a new highlight at this year’s Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre. The goal of the ITM Network Room was to create a safe space for dialogue and idea sharing around the different topics the world’s indigenous communities are focusing on.

This space held a number of speaker panels each day, many headed by some of the most prominent members of the indigenous global community. In light of next year’s Indigenous Terra Madre event to be held in Meghalaya, India, many of these topics were trials for the talks to be held in India. These topics included: Indigenous Pollinators, Wellbeing and Happiness, Communications, Indigenous and the UN, Storytelling, and Food, Medicine and Spirituality.

The speakers presenting on these topics came from all over the world and ranged in livelihood. There were speakers who are farmers, activists and government officials, along with representatives from FAO and IFAD, each bringing an important and different perspective. What really set the ITM Network Room apart, though, was the audience participation and the connections being made. Every panel incited more audience questions and comments than time would allow. The end of each panel started dozens of conversations to break out between audience approaching speakers and amongst the audience themselves.

The highlight of the ITM Network Room was the discussion on next year’s Indigenous Terra Madre in Meghalaya, northeast India. Chaired by Phrang Roy (Coordinator of the The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty, Rome) and with the presence of Anandi Soans (Slow Food’s Director of South Asia and Coordinator of the Indigenous Terra Madre Network), Ms. Dorathy Syiemiong, Director of Agriculture of the Government of Meghalaya and Mr. Bibhudutta Sahu, Director of the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), the discussion was an open call for suggestions and questions around next year’s conference.

The Indigenous Terra Madre Network Room was an amazing success with almost every panel filled past standing room. Hopefully it will continue in 2016 with even more exciting topics after the success of next years Indigenous Terra Madre in Meghalaya, India.

Slow Food wishes to give special thanks to IFAD, The Christensen Fund and the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity & Food Sovereignty for all the help, support and advice, and to our Indigenous Terra Madre network delegates for their strong and lively participation that made it such a success.