The Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement: Helping in the fight against food insecurity

The Indigenous food sovereignty movement promotes access to healthy food, and helps to fight food insecurity, made worse by droughts, severe floods, and other adverse weather events, which are impacts of climate change.

A key goal of Indigenous food sovereignty is to reduce the dependency of Indigenous communities on processed foods that are created by the industrial food system. By bringing together small-scale food producers and farmers, and Indigenous people who fish and hunt traditionally, the Indigenous food sovereignty movement facilitates the world-wide exchange of diverse, thousands-of-years-old practices in seed saving; catching, growing, harvesting, and storing food; and raising livestock, just to name a few. According to the Indigenous Food Systems Network, Indigenous food sovereignty is grounded in four key principles:

  1. Food is sacred and sovereign, and should not be constrained by colonial laws and practices. Human beings need to learn how to appreciate their connection to the land, plants, and animals, which are also different sources of food.
  2. Indigenous food sovereignty is action-oriented and encourages the participation of individuals, families, and communities in culturally-based day-to-day harvesting activities and strategies that can be adapted for future generations.
  3. Indigenous self-determination and food sovereignty inspire Indigenous peoples to make their own decisions about: food choices, food sources, and how much food is grown and consumed.
  4. Policy reform is central to Indigenous food sovereignty and may involve reconciling colonial economies with the values of diverse Indigenous communities.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

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Gardens and Climate Change – How Growing a Resilient Garden Helps Fight Global Warming

It’s the time of year when people across Turtle Island are turning to their gardens for food and for enjoyment. Fresh food from the garden supports health and wellness which improves our resilience as human beings. Growing a resilient garden also supports Mother Earth as the climate changes.

A garden (or a person) is resilient when it’s able to bounce back after facing extreme conditions. By learning different resilient gardening techniques, we can help our gardens withstand extreme weather caused by climate change. Practices that make gardens more resilient include, minimizing digging and ploughing (often called tilling), avoiding artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides, and including native plants. Planting perennials, the kinds of plants that aren’t weeds, but that, like weeds, come back every year without much maintenance, also contribute to making gardens more resilient to climate change in every season.

Indigenous gardens can play a key role in promoting intergenerational cooperation and sharing Traditional Knowledge about food and the environment. For example the Winyan Toka Win Garden a program of the Cheyenne River Youth Project has met the needs of elders who want traditional foods, and Lakota youth who can learn to better reconnect with the land and with each other. These gardens help build resilient communities and serve as community spaces for hands-on learning. Gardens become outdoor classrooms and contribute to Indigenous land-based learning and Indigenous food sovereignty to fight climate change.

With global warming, the growing season across Turtle Island has become longer. Learning to grow a garden that can adapt to a wide variety of growing conditions is an important factor in adapting to global warming and climate change. So, maybe the next time you admire your Three Sisters Garden grow, or the purple-stemmed asters or another native wildflowers where you live, remember that these plants help build the resilience of all of us, and Mother Earth, to climate change.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

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Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island Supports Communities in Adapting to Climate Change

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Since 2013, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island (MCPEI) has supported the communities of Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations in preparing and adapting to climate change impacts.

Recent studies have shown that climate change is contributing to sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and increased storm surges on Prince Edward Island, putting communities such as Lennox Island at risk. Coastal residences, critical community infrastructure, sacred grounds, and medicinal plant sites are all under threat from climate change and we needed to prepare for these challenges.

Having the community identify their priorities and concerns has been integral to the success of this project. We hosted workshops with Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations to identify and prioritize key climate risks to the community. Issues related to emergency response and human health, vulnerability of infrastructure, sea-level rise, coastal flooding, and vulnerability of traditional fishing and hunting areas were identified as key concerns by the community. “Climate change adaptation and the protection of our home, Lennox Island, is one of the most pressing challenges we face today” stated Chief Darlene Bernard of Lennox Island First Nation. “We appreciate the partnerships that have formed to help us achieve that goal.”

We also partnered with the University of Prince Edward Island’s Climate Land and Simon Fraser University’s Spatial Interface Research Lab on the Coastal Impact Visualization Environment (CLIVE). CLIVE combines historical erosion data, model projections of sea-level rise, aerial imagery, and high-resolution digital elevation data to draw map out coastal erosion and future sea-level rise scenarios. By using 3D game engine technology, CLIVE is able to communicate climate change information to community members that is visual and easy to understand.

We are planning future activities that will include continued community consultations, development of an archeological climate change risk assessment tool, and training on how to operate UAVs for community members. Our project will culminate in the development of an adaptation plan that will help our communities improve their resiliency to climate change.

Caption: Audience at Lennox Island (PEI) attending community workshop on climate change

 

Blog Post from: Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island

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The Imalirijiit Program: A Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Program of the George River Watershed in Nunavik, Quebec

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The Imalirijiit (Those who study water in Inuktitut) Program began in 2016 following a partnership between local organizations in Kangiqsualujjuaq (Nunavik, Quebec), and a group of university-based researchers. Kangiqsualujjuamiut were concerned about the possibility of a rare earth elements (REE) mining project starting its operations in the upper watershed of the George River (Strange Lake). The George River is essential to the traditional activities of fishing, hunting and gathering and the community wanted to start its own long-term community-based environmental monitoring program to collect baseline (or reference) data before any mining activities impact the water and environment quality in the watershed.

The Imalirijiit program includes Science land camps (Nunami Sukuijainiq), training workshops, and biomonitoring of atmospheric, aquatic and terrestrial conditions in the George River watershed, as well as interactive mapping of land use and local knowledge.

The community aims to track changes in its changing environment, especially by involving the youth in environmental stewardship. Among other things, they are studying the evolution of vegetation over the last 50 years in the river’s watershed. They are also developing a component for monitoring the abundance and characteristics of locally available shoreline country food species (Tininnimiutait), such as seaweeds (kuanniq), mussels (uviluq), clams (ammuumajuk) and other animals that are harvested or that provide a food source for the harvested species in Nunavik marine waters. This new aspect aims to enhance the dietary quality of these organisms and improve our food security and sovereignty.

Imalirijiit intends to stimulate interests toward science, and provide scientific educational and training opportunities for youth and other community members, through a land-based and hands-on approach. It also fosters intergenerational and intercultural knowledge exchanges and provides local jobs (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Objectives of the Imalirijiit Program.

Figure 2. 2019 Science Land Camp.

Figure 3. Collection of macroinvertebrates in the sediments at the bottom of a small tributary of the George River.

Figure 4. Collection of lichens for monitoring the air quality.

Figure 5. Tree coring to characterize the tree population (e.g. age and growth).

 

 

Look at our 2019-2020 report!
IMALIRIJIIT and NUNAMI SUKUIJAINIQ – Winter 2020. Results Summary for Community Organizations and Contributors.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WfWKju-C-QiZ9mGxe96hEYZEuLLEozWK/view?usp=sharing

Watch our videos!
NUNAMI SUKUIJAINIQ, 2020. Short documentaries series about the 2019 Science Land Camp on the George River, Nunavik.
10 minutes version: https://youtu.be/5MxC73SW-pw
4 minutes version: https://youtu.be/EUhdCs7Aodg
1-minute trailer: https://youtu.be/Qdmi9katTQg

Visit our websites!
http://www.imalirijiit.weebly.com
http://www.nunamiskuijainiq.weebly.com

 

Article By: The Imalirijiit Team, June 2020.

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Do you have an Indigenous climate action story to share? We’d love to hear from you!

Indigenous communities in Canada are leading the way in climate change action through community-led projects that integrate Indigenous knowledge, science and technology. You can read about some of these projects on the Indigenous Climate Hub blog.

The Indigenous Climate Hub is an online platform, which shares Indigenous climate change stories with a national and international audience. By actively sharing climate action stories and wise practices, Indigenous communities have the opportunity to inform and inspire future climate change projects in other Indigenous communities.

If your Indigenous community has a great climate action story you’d like to share, we invite you to submit your article via email to [email protected].

NOTE: Not sure how to write a blog article? Click here to view our Blog Writing Guide for some helpful tips.

 

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