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SAULTEAUX-MÉTIS (MMF)
Founder and Executive Director
Nicole Davies​​
Nicole has spent two decades dedicated to cultural knowledge revitalization and systems change. She is a passionate farmer and seed keeper, cultural educator, researcher, mentor, and advisor. As Sovereign Seeds’ founder and Executive Director, Nicole serves as our operational and strategic leadership, and she delivers our cultural education programming, guides entrepreneurship program development, and leads cultural seed production.
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Food sovereignty is Nicole's heart’s work and she has dedicated herself to a life-long learner and knowledge holder journey in cultural agriculture and plant medicine practices. She is community-trained and Elder-mentored and has completed several cultural training programs.
Nicole’s extensive expertise as a grower and cultural seed keeper positions her to conduct Sovereign Seeds’ on-farm seed revitalization and production. Blending cultural and western practices, she leads stock trials and variety breeding, stabilizes and adapts varieties’ genetic health and traits, and maintains our inventory of dozens of varieties for community rematriation and distribution.
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An experienced cultural educator, she delivers workshops on numerous topics spanning seed keeping, plant medicine, food processing and preservation, cultural agriculture teachings and technologies, food forests, Indigenous agricultural histories, knowledge and food sovereignty assessment training, soil remediation, land restoration and grassland management, among others. She has served as a strategic planning, needs assessment, and project visioning facilitator for Indigenous grassroots initiatives, organizations, and communities. ​
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Nicole's applied knowledge has informed her leadership in advocacy, policy, and research. She completed the International Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy at Columbia University, presenting on opportunities and challenges in national and international regulatory trends, frameworks, and pathways impacting Indigenous rights to seed in Canada. She subsequently participated in the
Canadian Climate Institute's and Canadian Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources' Indigenous Perspectives Program, authoring a report on the
state of Indigenous seed keeping and seed
climate adaptation stewardship.
​Nicole has served as a consultant, advisor, and council member on numerous agricultural, business development, philanthropy, youth, gender, land restoration, and climate projects, including Community Knowledge Exchange (CKX), First Ranchers' Knowledge Circle, Funding Futures Forward, Leaders for Land Revitalization, First Farmers Regenerative Grazing Research Network, Braiding our Medicines Collaborative, Red Dress Redress, and Sowing Sovereignty.
Nicole is a recognized voice in agriculture and food sovereignty, Indigenous food histories, knowledge revitalization, and philanthropic sector change and has delivered training and speaking services across university, corporate, non-profit, and government agency spaces, addressing diverse audiences like Walmart, United Way, Cargill, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Canadian Mental Health Association, the Canadian Queer Chamber of Commerce, Forward Summit, and various academic institutions, including the University of Winnipeg, First Nations University, and the University of British Columbia. Her work has been featured in various channels like the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun, Ricochet Media, La Presse, the Environment Journal, and others.
Nicole is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia's Integrated Studies in Land Food Systems program. Her prior academic grounding includes an M.A. in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria and a First Class Honours B.A. in Anthropology and Indigenous Studies from McGill University.
She is dedicated to creating meaningful community-building spaces in the pursuit of ancestrally-guided futures. She is grateful to collaborate with, learn from, and build alongside many inspiring community leaders, peers, and mentors.
