Source: Nourish
Year: 2020
In June 2020, Nourish hosted two conversations about food responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in health care by/for Indigenous communities. The purpose of the calls was to share learning focused on health care led interventions and document ongoing activities across the country responding to the particular needs in Indigenous communities. The hope is to identify strategies working well and document gaps that exist.
Author: Kyle Whyte
Year: 2017
Indigenous peoples often claim that colonial powers, such as settler states, violate Indigenous peoples' collective self-determination over their food systems, or food sovereignty. Violations of food sovereignty are often food injustices. Yet Indigenous peoples claim that one of the solutions to protecting food sovereignty involves the conservation of particular foods, from salmon to wild rice. This essay advances an argument that claims of this kind set forth particular theories of food sovereignty and food injustice that are not actually grounded in a static conception of Indigenous culture; instead, such claims offer important contributions to how settler colonial domination is understood as a form of injustice affecting key relationships that support Indigenous collective self-determination through food sovereignty. The essay describes some of the significant qualities of reciprocal relationships that support food sovereignty, referring widely to the work of Indigenous leaders and scholars and Tribal staff on salmon conservation in North America.
With the onset of the pandemic, food insecurity was exacerbated and Indigenous communities, especially those that are rural and remote, experienced increased pressure on their food systems as a result of disruptions in food supply chains, reduced ability to travel and harvest, and fewer occasions to celebrate and share food together.
In response, Nourish took a multi-phase approach by supporting community initiatives, facilitating knowledge exchanges, addressing systemic anti-Indigenous racism in health care, launching a national learning series, and creating opportunities for health care and community leaders to learn on the land from local Indigenous leaders.
Nourish awarded five $50k Food Rx grants to mobilize community-led, innovative, capacity-building projects that supported both food security and Indigenous foodways. Food Rx initiatives built and promoted Indigenous leadership and centered Indigenous foodways and values, supporting the transformation of health services to better reflect Indigenous understandings of food sovereignty and wellbeing.
Nourish hosted two virtual Food Rx grantee knowledge exchanges to facilitate networking, sharing, and peer learning between grantees, the Nourish team, and the Indigenous and Allies Advisory. Participants appreciated this space to share their insights, innovations, successes, challenges and questions.
Nourish produced a short film exploring food security, experiences of anti-Indigenous systemic racism in health care, and the power of traditional Indigenous foodways. Called "Why does hospital food matter for reconciliation?" it resonated with many across the country, and has been viewed 3347 times in English (as of June 17, 2021), with a version available with French subtitles as well.
In April 2021, Nourish launched a national education Action Learning series called Food is Our Medicine (FIOM). The Action Learning series highlights and amplifies Indigenous voices and perspectives to contextualize Indigenous foodways work through multimedia resources, and contributions of Indigenous leaders in medicine and systems change.
Additionally, FIOM features the work of several Indigenous artists in its visual identity and beadwork (the first 200 learners to complete the learning journey will be gifted a handcrafted beaded pin). FIOM provides health care leaders with knowledge and tools to decolonize food in health care and use it as an organizational pathway to deepen conversations about systemic racism and reconciliation.
With the end of the pandemic in view, seven teams in the Nourish Anchor Cohort will have access to grants up to $7k to participate and host on-the-land learning and relationship-building with Indigenous partners and knowledge keepers in their area. This program will start off in a good way with a Cultural Mindfulness session on June 28, hosted by George Couchie from Nipissing First Nation, with the goal of sowing the seeds or building upon existing relationships between health care, community organizations, and Indigenous communities.
Along with supporting Nourish programming, the Food Rx grants are addressing the unique challenges found at the complex intersection of three factors within health care: the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic anti-Indigenous racism, and food (in)security.
The entire process of this work was guided by the Nourish Indigenous and Allies Advisory, with participation from a wider circle of Indigenous leaders.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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. "
Source: National Indigenous Diabetes Association
Year: 2020
“The National Indigenous Diabetes Association (NIDA) presents this resource booklet entitled “Gifts from our Relations”, which consists of commonly consumed traditional foods (plants/animals) that are Indigenous to our lands. Colonization, the reserve system, and residential schools have had significant negative impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ land bases, territories, and connections to the land. Regular harvesting and consumption of original foods has been largely replaced with a commercial supply of western, processed, non-nutritive foods. As noted by the Canada Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “...original foods were viewed by missionaries, educators and doctors as being diseased and inferior; in residential schools, teachers taught children to dislike their own foods and inculcated them with the poor eating habits of a non-Indigenous institution.”"
Source: Taylor Wilson, Shailesh Shukla
Year: 2020
“The 2019 Canadian Food Guide (CFG) 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. Some scholars argue that federally designed standard food guides often fail to address the myriad and complex issues of food security, well-being, and nutritional needs of Canadian Indigenous communities while imposing a dominant and westernized worldview of food and nutrition. In a parallel development, Indigenous food systems and associated knowledges and perspectives are being rediscovered as a hope and ways to improve current and future food security. Based on a review of relevant literature and our long-term collaborative learning and community based research engagements with Indigenous communities from Manitoba, we propose that Indigenous communities should develop their food guides considering their contexts, needs, and preferences.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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."
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Source: Six Nations Polytechnic
Year: 2016
As part of the Conversations in Cultural Fluency webinar series, Six Nations Polytechnic explores Hodinoshon:hi worldviews. This one focuses on agriculture, food security, and Three Sisters sustainability.
Source: KCET
Year: 2020
“The commodification of food has led to a bottom-line approach that has disconnected people from their food sources entirely. The Cultural Conservancy, an inter-tribal organization headquartered on Ohlone land in modern-day San Francisco, is revitalizing Indigenous knowledge by inviting us to re-engage with the land, honor heirloom seeds, grow clean food and medicines, and decolonize our foodways.”
