Getting Back To Normal? Not If “Normal” Means Indigenous Food And Health Insecurity

With the summer solstice behind us and the prospect of a post-COVID “two dose” summer ahead, many are anticipating a return to normal. But the COVID era has revealed health inequities and structural realities that make return to “normal” untenable.

Incidents in the last twenty months, including the death of Joyce Echequan in a Quebec hospital, a higher death toll from overdoses than from COVID in Indigenous communities, and the continued-unearthing of mass graves of children at Indian Residential Schools, highlight that systemic racism has flourished in our collective silence and inaction. 

This is not a baseline to which we can return.

As we reopen, we must all confront a question that stands between a return to normal and advancing toward a future that affirms the self determination of Indigenous peoples.

Read more in the policy brief from Elisa Levi and Hayley Lapalme.

Climate change and COVID-19: reinforcing Indigenous food systems

Source: Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo, James D Ford, Ingrid Arotoma-Rojas, Shuaib Lwasa, Guillermo Lancha-Rucoba, Patricia J García

Year: 2020

“Indigenous populations are at especially high risk from COVID-19 because of factors such discrimination, social exclusion, land dispossession, and a high prevalence of forms of malnutrition. Climate change is compounding many of these causes of health inequities, undermining coping mechanisms that are traditionally used to manage extreme events such as pandemics, and disrupting food systems and local diets. Addressing underlying structural inequities and strengthening Indigenous knowledge systems offer opportunities for building resilience to compound socioecological shocks, including climate effects and pandemics.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

Ode to the Hospital Tray

Source: Nourish
Date: 2019
“Take a close look. You may see a hospital tray... but we see a platform.” This playful one-minute video describes the incredible opportunity that Nourish sees with hospital food as a platform for transformative change.