Indigenous Food Systems Network

The Lakes Secwepemc Foodland Conservation Society is a Secwepemc/Indigenous led not for profit society. Our purpose is to research and advocate for Secwepemc foodland conservation through integrated strategies of protecting, conserving, and regenerating Secwepemc biocultural heritage. The Board of Directors consists of members of the extended family networks of the Secwepemc Nation, and is developing research, education, and proposals for policy, planning and governance that upholds our sacred responsibilities to the land, water, culture, spirituality and future generations.

The "From the Ground Up" Toolkit is a courageous bundle of insights and analysis gained from networking and learning events led by the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty since 2006. It is a living, non-exhaustive synthesis of key insights and analyses intended to create ethical spaces of engagement (Ermine, 2007) in the interface where Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) meets the settler-colonial narrative of agriculture, food security/food sovereignty, health, forest and rangeland management, foodland conservation, and community economic development.

Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Ground Up

At a grassroots level,the Indigenous food sovereignty approach seeks to reconcile Indigenous
environmental ethics and cultural protocols with the re-establishment
of community-based economies. Indigenous food sovereignty provides
a framework for a speci!c policy approach to addressing the underlying
issues impacting long-term food security in Indigenous communities: it
serves to support Indigenous peoples and our efforts to uphold our sacred
responsibilities to nurture relationships with our land, culture, spirituality

Building on our 2020 Vision, we feel it is more important now than ever to advocate for the creation of an Urban Indigenous foodscape in Strathcona park. An Indigenous foodscape would breathe some much needed social and ecological resilience into the downtown eastside of Vancouver by realizing our vision of restoring Indigenous foodlands, establishing an Indigenous seed heritage garden, as well as building an Indigenous feast hall complete with large scale community kitchen for preparing, preserving, storing and sharing large amounts of food.