Congratulations to Shreya Chaudhuri, who has been awarded the Stronach Prize for her project: Equi-Tea: মাটিৰ মুক্তি, মানুহৰ মুক্তি / “liberation of the land is liberation of her people.” Shreya's research focuses on Traditional Ecological Knowledge and colonial legacies in Assam’s tea industry. Rooted in her family’s six-generation legacy of tea farming in India, her work explores how the global tea trade was built on extraction and erasure—and how Indigenous agroforestry practices offer pathways toward more just and sustainable futures. Shreya’s work bridges research, policy, education, and advocacy, centering Black and Brown communities and local knowledge systems. The Stronach Prize will allow Shreya to facilitate a farmer's collective, establish an archive of Indigenous agroforestry, and launch a farmer to consumer tea brand to help heal the colonial scars from the tea industry in Assam, India.
April 18, 2025