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September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. It is a day to honour the children who never returned home, survivors of residential schools, and their families and communities, and to recognize the ongoing impacts of the residential school system and colonialism.
Reconciliation also requires us to understand what happened to Indigenous food systems.
Colonial policies displaced Indigenous peoples from their lands and waters, restricted access to traditional foods and harvesting areas, and disrupted the transfer of food knowledge between generations. Residential schools separated children from their families, cultures, languages and traditional food practices. Food deprivation and malnutrition were also part of the residential school experience for many Indigenous children.
The consequences of this history continue today.
Indigenous Food Sovereignty is part of the work to restore and revitalize Indigenous food systems. It is about Indigenous peoples determining their own food systems, restoring relationships with land and water, revitalizing traditional foods and medicines, and passing knowledge between generations.
For a deeper understanding of Indigenous Food Sovereignty and its key principles, visit the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS).
In this lecture, recorded at SFU’s First Peoples’ Gathering House, Dr. Eldon Yellowhorn explores the relationship between heritage foods and food sovereignty. He discusses the challenges Indigenous people face in accessing seafood and country foods and maintaining customary diets.
Across British Columbia, Indigenous communities are reclaiming and revitalizing food systems and strengthening relationships with land, food, culture and community. This work takes many forms, from restoring traditional food landscapes and growing food to creating spaces for cultural connection and the transfer of knowledge between generations.
Here are a few examples of Indigenous-led food sovereignty work happening across the province.
Stqeeye’ Learning Society
mi tse’ t’akw’ – Coming home. These words describe Stqeeye’ Learning Society’s work to renew relationships with the land.
On Salt Spring Island, the organization acquired a 10-acre property at Xwaaqw’um that now provides a home for restoration work and efforts to advance Indigenous food security and food sovereignty. Through Xwaaqw’um Farm, Stqeeye’ is working to reintroduce traditional food cultivation, harvesting and processing practices and provide food for Elders, youth and families.
Learn more: Stqeeye’ Learning Society
Ancestral FoodWays Collective Society
In Vancouver, Ancestral FoodWays Collective Society is advancing Indigenous Food Sovereignty by cultivating and preserving knowledge and skills around cultural food practices. The organization is growing an Indigenous Cultural Food Hub at its Fieldhouse in Strathcona Park, with traditional and ancestral crops such as corn, beans, squash, potatoes and many other medicinal plants.
Learn more: Ancestral FoodWays Collective Society
Quw’utsun/Xwulqw’selu Estuary Restoration
The Quw’utsun/Xwulqw’selu (Cowichan/Koksilah) Estuary Restoration and Food System Revitalization Project is one of the largest estuary restoration projects ever completed on the BC coast. Working with Quw’utsun knowledge keepers’ and Elders’ stories to re-establish natural processes, the Project aims to revitalize the Quw’utsun (Cowichan Tribes) food system in the area with native food and medicinal plants.
Learn more: Read about the Quw’utsun/Xwulqw’selu Estuary or discover the project in video.
Uya’am Gaak Cultural Society
The V6A Garden, operated by Uya’am Gaak Cultural Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, is a community space where Indigenous approaches to healing, self-determination and collective empowerment come together.
The garden produces 10,000 lbs of produce each year and grows plants used as herbal and sacred medicines, including sweetgrass, sage, tobacco, cedar, Oregon grape, salal, stinging nettles, mallow, calendula, borage, and more. Food and medicines are shared through community partners in Downtown Eastside.
Learn more: Uya’am Gaak Cultural Society
Qqs Projects Society
In Bella Bella, Qqs Projects Society has worked for more than 25 years to connect people with ancestral foods and ancestral food production, harvesting and processing methods. Qqs Projects Society’s food security work includes a community garden and a fresh hamper delivery program serving more than 300 households.
Learn more: Qqs Projects Society
Indigenous Women Outdoors
For Indigenous Women Outdoors, food sovereignty means reclaiming the knowledge and practices needed to hunt, gather and trap. The organization offers hunting and food sovereignty programs as a way to support cultural resurgence.
Learn more: Indigenous Women Outdoors
Food and the Residential School System
Indigenous Food Sovereignty means more than producing food or improving access to food. It is connected to land and water, culture, language, traditional knowledge, self-determination and the ability of Indigenous communities to decide how their food systems are sustained.
As you reflect on this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, take time to learn from Indigenous people, communities and organizations leading this work.
Explore programs such as I·SPARC’s Food Systems Program, which supports Indigenous communities through grants, gatherings and knowledge sharing.
Listen to Indigenous leaders and communities, such as Jacob Beaton, who shares his work at Tea Creek Farm, an Indigenous-led, land-based food sovereignty and trades training initiative in Kitwanga (Gitxsan Territory), in this episode of CBC’s Unreserved.
Learn about the Indigenous territories where you live and the food systems that have sustained Indigenous peoples on those lands for generations.
Reconciliation requires more than reflection on September 30. Learning about and supporting Indigenous Food Sovereignty is one way to better understand both the impacts of colonialism and the work Indigenous communities are leading to restore and strengthen their food systems today.