Moving Your Body, Soul, and Heart to Share and Harvest Food

Abstract

Colonialism, and its partner, racism, greatly impact Indigenous food systems across Canada elevating the rates of diet-related diseases and food insecurity. Many Indigenous communities have responded to these challenges with their own community-based, culturally appropriate food solutions, including local food production. This participatory research explores the question of traditional food education for First Nations youth through photo elicitation with five young adults employed on a community farm and interviews with twelve Elders, community food educators and Knowledge Keepers. This research provides the building blocks for food education to support a community-based, Indigenous food system and sovereignty, informed by Garden Hill First Nation Elders and youth. Interviews and participatory research established that food education should be rooted in traditional and spiritual beliefs, land-based learning and self-determination, and food policies and programs need to assess the use of technology, financial sustainability, and promote gender balance. Community desires for food education closely match the tenets of Indigenous food sovereignty. This research shows the importance of developing Indigenous food education programs that are community-based and applied.

“We Make It Work Because We Must”: Narrating the Creation of an Urban Indigenous Food Bank in London, Ontario, Canada

“…In this analysis, the recipients did not detail the physical health benefits of accessing the Indigenous food bank, but both program leaders shared anecdotal stories about weight loss and improvements in chronic disease among the participants, some of whom were also their clients. Leaders also shared stories about how the uptake of traditional foods had positively impacted the mental wellbeing of the participants by eliciting memories from their childhoods or creating new spaces for families to create these positive associations with their cultural identity as Indigenous people [22,52]. As Program Leader B previously described, Indigenous pathways leading into the city are not predictable or uniform, but they are most certainly entangled with the effects of colonialism and environmental dispossession [23].…”

“…For example, Indigenous communities have unique values associated with food acquisition methods, food processing and preparation techniques, food use and composition, and food consumption [2][3][4]. The social relations that underlie the knowledge and skills needed to procure and process traditional food, and the sharing of food within households, extended families, and communities, are a primary means of reinforcing social networks and bonds [22]. These relationships strengthen cultural identity, belonging, and the affirmation of roles, responsibilities, and relational accountabilities to and with the land and with the wider community [11,21,22].…”

Mino Bimaadiziwin Homebuilder Program’s Impact on Sustainable Livelihoods Among Youth in Garden Hill and Wasagamack First Nations: An Evaluative Study

“…Elders envisioned youth learning holistic land-based stewardship to keep "the earth sacred" and their families healthy and housed (Thompson et al, 2017). Similarly, Anishinini youth and Elders of Garden Hill wanted community-based and applied education rooted in traditional and spiritual beliefs, land-based learning, cultural identity, and self-determination to build sustainable, culturally appropriate livelihoods (Michnik, Thompson, & Beardy, 2021).…”

“…Community-led postsecondary education provides options to decolonize and address priority issues through community projects (Michnik et al, 2021). As needs and priorities differ across communities based on their situation, educational projects should be responsive and community-led (Michnik et al, 2021). The Anishininiwuk communities and many other Native communities identify the lack of housing and tradespeople as a priority.…”

“…These high completion rates from this community education project contrast with only a few percent of people from these remote communities being successful in big urban educational institutions. Community-based education was considered successful, compared with limited success when training outside the community (Kopp et al, 2021;Gaudet, 2021;Michnik et al, 2021). The communitybased Homebuilder education project increased the Homebuilders' postsecondary education rate from two percent at the beginning to 84 percent at the end of the project.…”