Our Story
Seed, Soil and Spirit School was born in 2020. Stephanie and Shabina birthed the school out of a need to bring communities together to build a container for our communities to share deep love for the land and for each other. The goal has always been to plant the seeds of connection in order to build strong bridges of solidarity and care for the land and for each other.
Together, Shabina and Stephanie have tended to this school, alongside countless community members, and have offered herbal medicine and land stewardship programs at a sliding scale for hundreds of students.
SHABINA LAFLEUR-GANGJI
Shabina’s work is grounded in hands-on ecological care and informed by extensive academic and practical training. She has advanced herbal medicine training in Western herbalism as well as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and certifications in permaculture design and community-based food security. She is currently completing a degree in Indigenous Land Stewardship through the University of British Columbia, deepening her ability to integrate Indigenous ecological principles into land-based teaching and cultivation. The teaching garden has become a hub for intergenerational learning, community nourishment, and the preservation of seed and plant knowledge.
Shabina is the founder and steward of Seed, Soil, and Spirit School’s half-acre teaching garden in Guelph. In this thriving space, herbal education classes, children’s programs, community food security initiatives, and seed-saving practices take root. At the teaching garden, Shabina works with a team of volunteers and students to cultivate over 50 varieties of edible and medicinal herbs, trees, and shrubs, and operates two greenhouses.
STEPHANIE MORNINGSTAR
Stephanie is Mohawk with her mother’s ancestors rooted in Six Nations of the Grand River Territory (Schuler/Hope/Powless) and her father’s ancestors from Western and Eastern Europe. Stephanie’s passion and skill lie in the regeneration and restoration of native plant species and the practice of biocultural re-storyation, reviving the intertwined ecological and cultural relationships that sustain life. She has been at the forefront of land justice and rematriation work, partnering with the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, where she completed coursework and training in Biocultural Re-storyation. As co-founder of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, she has facilitated the rematriation of Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous lands, guided by the principles of reciprocity, cultural revitalization, and right relationship. She is also a dedicated herbalist and small-scale herb grower, tending medicine gardens that nourish both body and spirit.
In addition to her ecological and governance work, Stephanie is a skilled mediator who co-created and actively uses the Indigenous Dispute Resolution framework. This culturally grounded approach addresses and heals intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities, as well as within organizations and collectives stewarding land.