For Aaron LaFromboise, volunteering to help care for a community garden was initially just something she did to help out during the pandemic. But that small act has grown into a library demonstration garden that has inspired several community members to create their own gardens, and start growing their own food.
LaFromboise, American Indian Library Association (AILA) past president and director of library services at Medicine Spring Library at Blackfeet Community College in Browning, Montana, shared her story at the AILA President’s Program, “Food is Medicine in Medicine Spring Library: Food Sovereignty Needs in a Tribal Library,” at the American Library Association’s 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 24.
Food deserts—areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food—can contribute to dietary-related diseases for the people who live there. “Many reservations are in food deserts because they were designed to separate us,” she said. The Blackfeet reservation has two grocery stores, but LaFromboise was still concerned about food sovereignty, the ability of the community to depend on itself for sustenance for all community members.
Her gardening experience began when she started helping care for the USDA Extension community garden at Blackfeet Community College during the pandemic, when only employees were allowed on campus. That experience led to an invitation from the local food bank to learn about cultivating traditional teas, starting her own tea garden, and learning about other plants like prickly pear that members of the Blackfeet nation have traditionally used for food and other purposes.
Starting a garden at the library was a natural next step. “I’ve deemed what we do in the library, ‘the experimental garden,’” LaFromboise said. “It’s new and novel to me, and it’s novel to our community.” That novelty has inspired curiosity, and aided by signage and social media—and LaFromboise’s willingness to “drop just about anything to go outside and tell people about the garden”—it has also helped to build a community.
“Sometimes communities feel like there’s nothing that brings us together and that we’re shutting doors on each other in ways we never did before,” LaFromboise said. The garden counters that trend as people who have been inspired to start their own gardens share seeds, commiserate over setbacks, and celebrate successes.
The garden has helped the library reach people who would have rarely considered it before. “Many tribal members don’t realize they have a library,” LaFromboise said. “There’s a lot of communal distrust of institutions, and culturally, they grew up in a time when they would be in trouble if they came into a library and they just were themselves.”
It’s also contributing to other tribal revitalization and land rehabilitation efforts. “One of the organizations working on reintroducing bison to our land now meets in the library,” LaFromboise said. “We can be a unique meeting point for a lot of people.”
