Revitalizing Native Foodways

Source: Kaylena Bray, Melissa K Nelson

Year: 2015

“At a time when food has become better known as a commodity rather than a life source, it is more pressing than ever to remember that food, in its deepest, truest essence, is a gift. It’s a gift that connects us to the land, plants, animals, and waters, that nourishes us, feeds our minds and our bodies, and guides us in our original roles as human members of our sacred ecosystems. As Indigenous peoples, we have a sacred responsibility to take care of our foods and of all the elements of life – soil, water, air, seeds, fire, prayers – that create it.”

Indigenous Food Systems Network Website

Source: Indigenous Food Systems Network

Year: n.d.

“The Indigenous Food Systems Network Website was developed by the WGIFS and is designed to allow individuals and groups involved with Indigenous food related action, research, and policy reform to network and share relevant resources and information.”

Valerie Segrest at TEDxRainier

Source: Valerie Segrest at TEDxRainier

Year: 2014

“The Indian tribes around the Puget Sound have practiced sustainable balance with its foods for thousands of years, but now the prairie lands and mountain berry meadows are disappearing and salmons runs are dwindling. Valerie Segrest, a member of Muckleshoot tribe and native foods educator tells us to listen to the salmon and cedar tree, who teach us a life of love, generosity and abundance, and to remember when we take better care of our land, we are taking better care of ourselves.”

A Conversation on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (Part 2)

Source: Kitatipithitamak Mithwayawin and guests

Year: 2020

“This discussion includes 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.”

Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Source: Food Secure Canada

Year: 2011

"We are a group of community-based activists, scholars and storytellers who work on issues of food sovereignty. We come from diverse regions of Turtle Island and share fundamental beliefs towards the land and all she stands for. We represent fishing, hunting, and gathering peoples and bring an understanding of the impact of colonialism on our regions. Indigenous food systems include all of the land, soil, water, and air, as well as culturally important plant, fungi, and animal species that have sustained Indigenous peoples over thousands of years of participating in the natural world. "

Reconciling Ways of Knowing Webinar Series

Source: Reconciling Ways of Knowing

Year: 2020

“In our first dialogue in this series, Why Do We Need to Reconcile Ways of Knowing? leaders working at the confluence of Indigenous and scientific knowledge and decision making discussed the events, issues and relationships that made it clear that a national-scale dialogue to facilitate just reconciliation between the ways of knowing and ways of being of Indigenous Peoples and Canadians, and their respective governments, is needed.”

Cooking Wild Game for an Event? Resource folder

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

Year: 2020

The Understanding Our Food Systems Project from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Indigenous Food Circle share a series of resources, including info sheets, guidelines, application forms, and other materials for serving wild game at events.

Community Champions for Safe, Sustainable, Traditional Food Systems

Source: Kathleen Yung, Casey Neathway

Year: 2019

“This study will describe how the First Nations Health Authority supported increasing access to the processing and sharing of safely preserved traditional foods through the facilitation of a Community Champion model and the development of accompanying resource materials. Engaging Community Champions recognized the positive social impacts of sharing foods and traditional food systems, including access to nutrient-rich harvested foods, while the curriculum development and engagement of environmental health professionals ensured advice given would lead to decreased risks of foodborne illness.”

Assembly of First Nations Report: Traditional Foods: Are they Safe for First Nations Consumption?

Source: Assembly of First Nations

Year: 2007

“This paper focuses on the critical issue of First Nations exposure to environmental contaminants through the consumption of traditional foods. It discusses the potential health risks and benefits to First Nation communities, as well as, other issues of concern with respect to the economic and socio-cultural aspects of traditional food systems. The Environmental Stewardship Unit (ESU) of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has reviewed relevant research on this subject and will provide an overview of the current situation in this paper.”

Increasing Indigenous Children’s Access to Traditional Foods in Early Childhood Programs

Source: Provincial Health Services Authority, British Columbia

Year: 2016

"Traditional Indigenous foods are part of a healthy diet. Moreover, traditional foods also have cultural and spiritual value and can contribute to the health of young First Nations and Métis children, many of whom experience food insecurity. Early childhood programs are ideal settings to introduce, explore and share traditional foods. However, in licensed childcare settings, the current food regulatory system effectively excludes the type, frequency and/or where traditional foods can be served."

We are not being heard: Aboriginal Perspectives on Traditional Food Access and Food Security

Source: Bethany Elliott, Deepthi Jayatilaka, Contessa Brown, Leslie Varley, and Kitty K. Corbett

Year: 2012

“Aboriginal peoples are among the most food insecure groups in Canada, yet their perspectives and knowledge are often sidelined in mainstream food security debates. In order to create food security for all, Aboriginal perspectives must be included in food security research and discourse. This project demonstrates a process in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal partners engaged in a culturally appropriate and respectful collaboration, assessing the challenges and barriers to traditional foods access in the urban environment of Vancouver, BC, Canada.”

Towards Improving Traditional Food Access for Urban Indigenous People

Source: Robyn Ermine, Rachel Engler-Stringer, Patricia Farnese, Glenda Abbott

Year: 2020

“Our purpose in carrying out this project has been to support the development of actions that can remove barriers to traditional foods in urban environments for Indigenous people. Traditional foods are hunted, trapped, fished, gathered and cultivated to various extents depending on the community and their respective traditional territories. Communities and organizations across the country are finding innovative ways to bring traditional foods to urban residing Indigenous people, but they are often navigating the relevant policies and regulations on their own. This situation places the burden of navigating current policies and regulations on Indigenous communities.”

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.”

Indigenous Food Sovereignty and COVID-19

Source: Angela D’Elia Decembrini

Year: 2020

“For many Indigenous Peoples, the importance of food goes beyond its nutritional value. Maintaining access to traditional food sources is inextricably linked to Indigenous Peoples’ relationships with the land and environment, the exercise of their Aboriginal title, rights and Treaty rights and the continuity of their cultures and traditions. In recent months, concerns regarding food security have been heightened as COVID-19 related restrictions have placed increased pressure on food supply chains. For Indigenous communities across Canada, however, the pandemic has only exacerbated concerns about their already fragile food systems.”

What we heard: Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19: Public Health Agency of Canada’s companion report

Source: Public Health Agency of Canada

Year: 2021

“This report is to complement the CPHO’s Annual Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2020, “From Risk to Resilience: An equity approach to COVID-19”. During late February 2020, COVID-19 became a growing concern in Canada with reported cases in multiple regions. COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work, and socialize. Dr. Mashford-Pringle and the research team were asked to author a companion report as a reflection of what was heard during the August and September engagement sessions.”

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.”

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.”

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.”