Exploring Indigenous kitchens of North America with Sean Sherman

Source: The Splendid Table with the Sioux Chef

Year: 2017

“Chef Sean Sherman - founder of the company The Sioux Chef - has made a name for himself in the Upper Midwest by sourcing and cooking with ingredients originally used by Native American groups across the region. The result is an eye-opening and healthy take on modern cuisine. However, his interests are not limited to the native peoples of the Midwest. For his new book, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman and co-author Beth Dooley pulled from his travels to and experiences cooking with native cultures all over North America. Sherman talked with Francis Lam, and shared with him some unique food and ingredients. You can make Sherman's recipes for Maple-Juniper Roast Pheasant and Cedar Tea.”

Ocean and Way of Life: Haida Culture and the Ocean and Rivers of Haida Gwaii

Source: Council of the Haida Nation

Year: 2011

"Our knowledge about the ocean and Haida culture is handed down from generation to generation. lnherited teachings - the collective experience of fishing and harvesting areas and learning methods and times for gathering and preparing seafoods - are passed on by each generation to nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren. This further connects us to the land, sea and culture. ln passing on this knowledge we also pass on cultural values, ethics and laws.”

A Conversation on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (Part 1)

Source: Kitatipithitamak Mithwayawin and guests

Year: 2020

“This video is a shortened version of the full length webinar. It highlights some of the key points and moments. Some of the things discussed include the importance of dismantling structural racism in the food system, how Covid-19 speaks to the inequities of our broken food system, and how intertwined the social and environmental implications of food are for Indigenous peoples.”

Métis Cookbook and Guide to Healthy Living

Source: Métis Centre, National Aboriginal Health Organization

Year: 2008

“This cookbook is full of many more modern recipes than those of olden times, but some of them still have the essence of the old. They are also a testament to the Métis mothers of the past who always found a way to throw together a great meal. To the young parents who will be using this book, remember the good things of your childhood, and as you prepare this food, use the energy from those good memories to re-create those old traditions of sharing good food, stories and laughter. That, I know for sure, will build strong families and a strong people.”

First Nations Health Authority Traditional Foods Fact Sheets

Source: First Nations Health Authority

Year: n.d.

The First Nations Health Authority has published an informative set of facts sheets on traditional food and its nutrition value, traditional harvesting methods, and history of use. Topics include: fish, seafood, wild game, birds, berries and other plant foods.

Resource folder from the Yukon Hospital Traditional Food Program

Source: Yukon Hospital Corporation

Year: n.d.

How does it look like to implement a traditional food program in a hospital, and what are some considerations for food safety? This folder contains policies, forms, and processes for the traditional food program from the Yukon Hospital Corporation.

Urban Access to Traditional Food: Understanding Wild Game

Source: Understanding Our Food Systems Project (Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Indigenous Food Circle)

Year: 2020

“The Urban Access to Traditional Food: Understanding Wild Game documentary was developed to capture the relationships being built and work happening within the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Indigenous Food Circle and partner organizations around the topic of accessing wild game in an urban context. The short documentary provides viewers with the cultural importance of accessing traditional foods for Indigenous people and presents the barriers that organizations face, while focusing on a path forward for further collaboration and understanding.”

Planning for Food Security: A Toolkit for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Source: First Nations Health Authority

Year: 2020

"Since time immemorial, First Nations people in BC have had intimate and long-standing relationships with the land, forests, oceans and waters, creating vibrant and sustainable food systems. All aspects of life supported a sustainable and safe food system that relied upon hunting, fishing, gathering, preserving, storing, distributing, trading and more. Stories shared and Indigenous methods of research show that individuals, families and communities did not worry about long-term food security and were prepared in the event of short-term food shortages. Colonialism, the Indian Act, reserve systems and ongoing colonial policies have had devastating impacts on Indigenous food systems in BC and across Canada. Other pressures such as industrialization, population levels and environmental impacts mean that today’s food system is very different than it was for our ancestors."

Indigenous Hunter Keeps Traditions Alive in Boreal Forest

Source: Pew

Year: 2016

““An intact boreal forest is essential for the survival of Dene communities,” says James Marlowe. Marlowe is a Dene hunter and guide from the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation, a remote Indigenous community on the east arm of Great Slave Lake in Canada’s boreal forest. The lifestyle of the Dene is experiencing some changes, and so is the forest landscape, as demand for the area’s rich natural resources expands.”

Honouring Our Strengths: Indigenous Culture as Intervention Recipes

Source: Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, the University of Saskatchewan, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Year: n.d.

“These cards feature recipes from coast to coast and are a reminder that food is essential to the healing process. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of First Nations culture as a health intervention in alcohol and drug treatment.”

Inuit and their traditional foods

Source: McGill Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment

Year: n.d.

“In recent decades Indigenous Peoples globally have experienced rapid and dramatic shifts in lifestyle that are unprecedented in history. Moving away from their own self-sustaining, local food systems into industrially derived food supplies, these changes have adverse effects on dietary quality and health.”

Keeping Our Traditions at Fish Camp Alive

Source: Selkirk First Nation

Year: 2016

“The traditions and values of the Selkirk people can be found in Northern Tutchone culture. The health and wellbeing of our people is linked to the land and to the traditional ways of our ancestors which are held by our traditional knowledge keepers. The use of family fish camps is at the heart of how this knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next. It is where our youth prepare for a changing future. It is in the fish camps that the cultural principles of the Northern Tutchone are taught, questions are answered, and guidance is provided.”

Why is Eating Traditional Foods Important?

Source: Jared Qwustenuxun Williams

Year: 2020

Why is eating traditional foods important? This diagram shows the interconnected parts of culture and traditions that are integral to traditional diets and wellbeing.

Strawberry Teachings

Source: Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health

Year: n.d.

“The strawberry teaches forgiveness and peace. The strawberry is shaped like a heart, and strawberries are known to our people as heart berries.” —Elder Lillian Pitawanakwat Often referred to as the heart berry because of its shape, the wild or natural strawberry is an important food and medicine in many indigenous cultures in North America. This little plant carries many teachings. Our Elders say, “Just as the O-day’-min (heart berry) is connected to the strawberry plant by a vast system of leaves, runners, and roots, so is the heart connected to all the organs and parts of the human body. The heart is at the centre of the human.”

Foundations of an Indigenous Food System Model

Source: North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems; The Sioux Chef

Year: 2017

This diagram shows the foundations of an Indigenous food system model, from North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NāTIFS), an organization founded by the Sioux Chef, Sean Sherman. NāTIFS is “dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.” Read more about their work here.

Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe'iyewigamig Traditional Food Guide

Source: Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig Health Access Center

Year: 2020

“This resource is the result of a partnership with community members and the WNHAC team. This resource highlights the connection between TRADITIONAL FOODS & HEALTH. The pages of this booklet share the important role of traditional foods as medicine. Food – in addition to GUIDANCE FROM A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL and/or TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE KEEPER – is the best medicine to stay well. TRADITIONAL FOODS are connected to: THE LAND, LANGUAGE, and ENVIRONMENT. Colonization has broken connections to traditional foods and medicines. For this reason, we see an increase in chronic disease and food insecurity in communities. Reclaiming traditional diets is a way to be more food secure AND to prevent and treat diet-related illnesses. In this way, traditional foods and land-based food practices are healing. THIS TRADITIONAL FOOD GUIDE is built on ANISHINAABE LANGUAGE AND WISDOM. Honouring and sharing Anishinaabe knowledge is the best way to heal and care for each other.”

Decolonizing diets through Indigenous-focused food guides

Source: University of Winnipeg

Year: 2020

“Taylor Wilson’s paper, Decolonizing Diets through Indigenous-focused food Guides, has recently been published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Her research comes in response to the latest Canadian Food Guide, which was launched in January 2019 with a promise to be inclusive of multicultural diets and diverse perspec­tives on food, including the food systems of Indigenous communities. Wilson’s paper is the result of a project she developed with Dr. Shailesh Shukla during her Master’s in Development Practice: Indigenous Development. Their research examines the scope and limitations of the most recent Canadian food guide and the opportu­nity to decolonize it.”

Serving Country Food in Government-Funded Facilities and Community Programs

Source: Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Food Security Coalition

Year: 2016

Government of Nunavut (GN)-funded facilities and community programs are encouraged to serve more country food. The suggestions in this booklet are made specifically for GN community programs and facilities that serve country food.

Yukon Hospitals First Nations Health Program: Cultural Programs

Source: Yukon Hospitals

Year: 2016

This video shows traditional food and medicine at Yukon Hospitals through First Nations Health Programs.

Nourish conversation summary: Health care food responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Source: Nourish

Year: 2020

Nourish hosted two informal exchanges (on June 11 and June 25, 2020) about health care food responses by/for Indigenous communities during COVID-19. The need for this conversation emerged from discussions within the Nourish Indigenous & Allies Advisory and from checking in with others leading efforts in this vein in the grassroots and in philanthropy.