Indigenous Food Systems Network

First Nations chiefs are planning a 29-hour hunger strike leading up to the Olympic hockey game between Canada and Norway Tuesday, to protest Norwegian-owned fish farms.

Members of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs are fasting to support the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council's opposition to fish-farm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago.

The Sir Wilfred Laurier Memorial outlines the history of the relationship between the Secwepemc (original inhabitants of the Shuswap geographic region in the southern interior of B.C.) and the European settlers up to the period of 1910.

Follow this link to visit 91.1 Secwepemc Radio website for a podcast that includes background information on colonization and how it relates to what the food sovereignty guru - Vandana Shiva says at her talk in Kelowna in 2009. Background information and recording done by Rebecca Kneen and Illona Trogub.

ork – Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty

On February 1, 2010, the Indigenous Food Systems Network Website was launched! The IFSN Website Project is a web-based centre for increasing awareness of issues, concerns and strategies related to protecting, conserving and restoring the myriad of Indigenous food based cultures across Canada.

Related File: 

The following file is a 61 KB pdf document you many need to download Adobe Reader to open the file.

IFSN_Website_Launch_Press_Release_Feb_2.10.pdf

Diabetes may be linked to pollutants
Published: Jan. 29, 2010 at 4:00 PM - UPI

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- There is growing evidence diabetes -- especially among indigenous people -- may be linked to environmental pollutants, U.S. and Canadian researchers say.

One-out-of-four indigenous adults living on reserves in Canada have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, The Dominion reports.

Women are leading a revival of First Nations' staple foods. To get lucky, you have to get mucky. With my feet twisting in the mud of a frigid river, I have already lost the festive socks that were a Christmas gift from my mom. Now the river bottom is turning to quicksand beneath my bare feet. I sink slowly at first, then slip swiftly from waist-deep until the water is nearly at my neck. The water is so cold that it is crusted with ice along the shore, and I know I can't last much longer.

At GRAIN, we are extremely concerned that today's global land grab is only going to make the food crisis worse. For it pushes an agriculture geared toward large scale monocultures, GMOs, throwing farmers off the land in favour of machines, and lots of chemicals and fossil fuels. This is not an agriculture that will feed everyone. It's an agriculture that feeds speculative profits for a few and more poverty for the rest. Of course we need investment.

After seeing the film Avatar, the recent release by James Cameron dealing with allegorical Indigenous Peoples on an alien planet that humans seek to colonize, displace and finally eliminate in order to access the rich resources in their territories, a few reflections emerge. The first is a more than passing resemblance to the actual reality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and beyond, the bounty of whose land and resources have cost them great suffering at the hands of colonizers and would-be-saviours.

The purpose of this project was to engage Aboriginal communities in discussions that would enable individuals and groups involved with food related action to explore and identify ways that the B.C. Food Systems Network (BCFSN) - Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS) can support their work on increasing food security.

File: 

The following file is a 283 KB pdf document you many need to download Adobe Reader to open the file.

WGIFS_Final_Report_March_08.pdf

Since the time of contact with non Indigenous settlers in the southern interior of B.C. many traditional Indigenous harvesters including hunters, fishermen, and gatherers from the Ktunaxa, Nlaka’pamux, Secwepemc, St’at’imc, Syilx, and Ts’ilqotin nations have repeatedly expressed concern about the declining health and abundance of culturally important foods in our respective traditional territories. Therefore, the Interior of B.C.

File: 

The following file is a 122 KB pdf document you many need to download Adobe Reader to open the file.

IFSC2006FinalReport.pdf