"TAMMARA SOMA ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT – 2023 Simon Fraser University SOCIAL MEDIA NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR

Originally from the tropical archipelago of Indonesia, Dr. Tammara Soma, mom of three and professor of food system planning at Simon Fraser University has dedicated her life and heart to developing a more equitable and sustainable food system in Canada and beyond.

In Tammara’s first documentary, Food is My Teacher, she delves into the pains of the past, including her own harrowing experience dealing with an eating disorder, to showcase how food can heal communities, body and spirit. This is Tammara's first experience in creating a documentary. She co-wrote and co-directed Food is My Teacher with award-winning filmmaker Brandy Yanchyk, who also produced the film. They travelled across Alberta and British Columbia on a quest to learn how food is healing within different communities.

In British Columbia, Tammara met and learned from Indigenous ethnobotanists T’uy‘t’tanat-Cease Wyss and Senaqwila Wyss; Gillian Der and Christina Lee of the hua foundation; and visited a Sikh gurdwara where she participated in a Langar community kitchen.

In Alberta, Dr. Soma visited the Baitun Nur Mosque in Calgary where she explored how her Muslim identity has helped her heal her own relationship with food; and travelled to the Bow Valley where she met up with volunteers of the Bow Valley Food Alliance and the Filipino Organization in the Rocky Mountains. 

Please click here for the 26 minute version of this film.