Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Canada: Policy Paper 2019

Source: Stephen Penner, Kathleen Kevany, Sheri Longboat

Year: 2019

“Indigenous Nations in Canada have and continue to deal with a colonial food system that leaves many of these nations located in, what can be best described, as food wastelands, and at worst, imposes a lifetime sentence to a food prison (Finley, 2014). As we walk toward a path of reconciliation, it would be wise to acknowledge that Indigenous people had a well-developed, complex and thriving social-economic systems prior to colonial contact. Recognizing the depth of their intra-generational knowledge and deep understanding of the land can facilitate the development of a meaningful national and Indigenous food policy. One that recognizes mino-pimatwisin (Anishinaabe for good life) and maligit (balance) in Quajimajatuqangit (Inuktitut for Inuit Traditional Knowledge) nidiawemaginidog (Anishinaabe for “all my relatives”). Resulting in a robust and meaningful Indigenous food production system.”

Assembly of First Nations Report: Traditional Foods: Are they Safe for First Nations Consumption?

Source: Assembly of First Nations

Year: 2007

“This paper focuses on the critical issue of First Nations exposure to environmental contaminants through the consumption of traditional foods. It discusses the potential health risks and benefits to First Nation communities, as well as, other issues of concern with respect to the economic and socio-cultural aspects of traditional food systems. The Environmental Stewardship Unit (ESU) of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has reviewed relevant research on this subject and will provide an overview of the current situation in this paper.”

Increasing Indigenous Children’s Access to Traditional Foods in Early Childhood Programs

Source: Provincial Health Services Authority, British Columbia

Year: 2016

"Traditional Indigenous foods are part of a healthy diet. Moreover, traditional foods also have cultural and spiritual value and can contribute to the health of young First Nations and Métis children, many of whom experience food insecurity. Early childhood programs are ideal settings to introduce, explore and share traditional foods. However, in licensed childcare settings, the current food regulatory system effectively excludes the type, frequency and/or where traditional foods can be served."

We are not being heard: Aboriginal Perspectives on Traditional Food Access and Food Security

Source: Bethany Elliott, Deepthi Jayatilaka, Contessa Brown, Leslie Varley, and Kitty K. Corbett

Year: 2012

“Aboriginal peoples are among the most food insecure groups in Canada, yet their perspectives and knowledge are often sidelined in mainstream food security debates. In order to create food security for all, Aboriginal perspectives must be included in food security research and discourse. This project demonstrates a process in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal partners engaged in a culturally appropriate and respectful collaboration, assessing the challenges and barriers to traditional foods access in the urban environment of Vancouver, BC, Canada.”

What we heard: Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19: Public Health Agency of Canada’s companion report

Source: Public Health Agency of Canada

Year: 2021

“This report is to complement the CPHO’s Annual Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2020, “From Risk to Resilience: An equity approach to COVID-19”. During late February 2020, COVID-19 became a growing concern in Canada with reported cases in multiple regions. COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work, and socialize. Dr. Mashford-Pringle and the research team were asked to author a companion report as a reflection of what was heard during the August and September engagement sessions.”

Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples

Source: Harriet Kuhnlein and Nancy Turner

Year: 1991

“The primary purpose of this book is to describe and to reference the published literature on the nutritional properties, the botanical characteristics and the ethnic uses of traditional food plants of Canadian Indigenous Peoples. Since it is recognized that Canadian political boundaries are not honored by plants in their biological habitats, the nutritional and botanical information presented here is often relevant to other regions with northern latitudes where the same species are found, such as northern regions of the United States, Europe and Asia. However, the ethnographic information reviewed and presented in this book is only from Canadian Indigenous Peoples and their immediate neighbors in Alaska and other states bordering Canada.”

Indigenous Health Primer

Source: Indigenous Health Writing Group at the Royal College of Physicians

Year: 2019

The following document is designed to provide key approaches, ideas and background knowledge for health care providers, learners and educators in caring for Indigenous Peoples. The primer was written and edited by Indigenous and non-indigenous authors. Many of us are practising Indigenous physicians from a breadth of specialties. Each reference section is linked to detailed sources, the majority of which were created by Indigenous organizations. In addition to the theoretical and medical content, we aimed to include stories to illustrate the experiences of Indigenous Peoples in the health care system.

Cultural continuity, traditional Indigenous language, and diabetes in Alberta First Nations: a mixed methods study

Source: Richard Oster, Angela Grier, Rick Lightning, Maria Mayan, Ellen Toth

Year: 2014

Cultural continuity, or “being who we are”, is foundational to health in successful First Nations. Self-determination, or “being a self-sufficient Nation”, stems from cultural continuity and is seriously compromised in today’s Alberta Cree and Blackfoot Nations. Unfortunately, First Nations are in a continuous struggle with government policy. The intergenerational effects of colonization continue to impact the culture, which undermines the sense of self-determination, and contributes to diabetes and ill health.

Calls to Action Accountability: A 2020 Status Update on Reconciliation

Source: Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby; Yellowhead Institute

Year: 2020

December 15, 2020, marks a full five years since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. It was a momentous day that saw residential school Survivors, their families, and representatives of the institutions responsible for overseeing the horrors of Canada’s Indian residential school system gather in Ottawa to chart a new path for the future guided by the Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Governments committed to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal counterparts to, “fully implement the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” But five years later, that commitment has not materialized. In 2020, a tumultuous year for many reasons, our analysis reveals that just 8 Calls to Action have been implemented, this is down from 9 in 2019.

Understanding the value and promise of Indigenous food sovereignty in western Canada

Source: Tabitha Martens

Year: 2015

Food sovereignty has recently emerged as a means of addressing food-related problems that confront many Indigenous and rural communities around the world. It moves beyond access to food, and is grounded in the idea that people should self-determine their food systems and cultural traditions. This is particularly important for Indigenous people who still face threats to their food systems linked to colonialism.

Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942-1952

Source: Ian Mosby

Year: 2013

Between 1942 and 1952, some of Canada’s leading nutrition experts, in cooperation with various federal departments, conducted an unprecedented series of nutritional studies of Aboriginal communities and residential schools. The most ambitious and perhaps best known of these was the 1947-1948 James Bay Survey of the Attawapiskat and Rupert’s House Cree First Nations. Less well known were two separate long-term studies that went so far as to include controlled experiments conducted, apparently without the subjects’ informed consent or knowledge, on malnourished Aboriginal populations in Northern Manitoba and, later, in six Indian residential schools. This article explores these studies and experiments, in part to provide a narrative record of a largely unexamined episode of exploitation and neglect by the Canadian government.

Exploring First Nation Elder Women’s Relationships with Food from Social, Ecological, and Historical Perspectives

Authors: Hannah Tait Neufeld, Chantelle Richmond, and The Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre

Year: 2020

The ongoing negative health effects of colonization have disproportionately affected Indigenous women, who are disproportionately affected by diabetes, food insecurity, and undernutrition. Indigenous women also perceive their health less positively than men do. This article draws theoretically from the socio-ecological model to explore health inequalities experienced by Indigenous women associated with the intergenerational effects of the residential school legacy, specifically related to food practices.

Ignored to Death: Systemic Racism in the Canadian Healthcare System

Source: Brenda Gunn

Year: n.d.

Widespread health disparities continue for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Indigenous peoples experience lower health outcomes than non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, which is exacerbated by the lack of access to quality health care and lower socio-economic situation (as confirmed by the social determinates of health). Indigenous peoples also lack access to adequate health services, especially in remote communities. In 2015, the Auditor General in Canada concluded that “Health Canada did not have reasonable assurance that eligible First Nations individuals living in remote communities in Manitoba and Ontario had access to clinical and client care services and medical transportation benefits as defined for the purpose of this performance audit.” There is a failure to implement existing policies and strategies.

In Plain Sight: Summary Report

Source: Addressing Racism Review

Year: 2020

In June 2020, claims surfaced about a “Price is Right” game allegedly being played in some B.C. hospital Emergency Departments, in which health care workers were guessing blood alcohol levels of Indigenous patients. The Minister of Health commissioned an independent Review to investigate the “Price is Right” allegations and whether this game or other forms of Indigenous-specific racism are being experienced by Indigenous people using the provincial health care system, make findings of fact, and “to make any recommendations it considers necessary and advisable.”

In Plain Sight: Full Report

Source: Addressing Racism Review; Government of British Columbia

Year: 2020

In June 2020, claims surfaced about a “Price is Right” game allegedly being played in some B.C. hospital Emergency Departments, in which health care workers were guessing blood alcohol levels of Indigenous patients. The Minister of Health commissioned an independent Review to investigate the “Price is Right” allegations and whether this game or other forms of Indigenous-specific racism are being experienced by Indigenous people using the provincial health care system, make findings of fact, and “to make any recommendations it considers necessary and advisable.”

Health and Health Care Implications of Systemic Racism on Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Source: Indigenous Health Working Group of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada

Year: 2016

Family physicians know that supporting a patient’s health requires trust, compassion, and mutual respect. For Indigenous patients and their families, this is not always achieved. Systemic racism has been identified as a major barrier to positive relationships between physicians and Indigenous patients and the best care of Indigenous peoples. This brief guide for physicians helps you understand better the role that systemic racism can play in shaping an Indigenous patient’s clinical experience, and what you can do about it. As Indigenous patients, Indigenous physicians, and allies, we are appealing to you to help us address this pervasive and harmful problem.

Relational Systems Thinking

Source: Melanie Goodchild

Year: 2021

We explore the notion of the need to decolonize systems thinking and awareness. Taking a specifically Indigenous approach to both knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, we look at awareness-based systems change via a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) two-row visual code. The authors explore the sacred space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of thinking and knowing, to identify pathways for peaceful co-existence of epistemologies.

Two-Eyed Seeing: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Approaches to Indigenous Health Research

Source: Debbie Martin

Year: 2021

This article presents two-eyed seeing as a theoretical framework that embraces the contributions of both Indigenous and Western “ways of knowing” (world-views). It presents key characteristics and principles of these different perspectives and suggests ways in which they might be used together to answer our most pressing questions about the health of Indigenous people and communities.

Health and Food Ethics

Source: AMA Journal of Ethics
Date: October 2018

Gut microbes matter clinically, so diets based on food availability in different markets matter ethically. But that's just one reason to care about food in health care ethics. Providing safe, nutritious, and environmentally sustainable food to all is a great challenge. Physicians in some US cities have been writing prescriptions for patients to obtain fresh produce through healthy food outreach programs. Clinical encounters, however, cannot fully reverse negative health effects of low-quality diets. If the global community cannot find solutions to address food quality and access, costs will be high. This issue investigates some of the compelling ethical issues at stake with food and health.

Nourish Infographic: Opportunities for Food in Health Care

Source: Nourish
Year: 2018
Nourish and its collaborators have launched new infographic, The Opportunities for Food in Health Care, to illustrate how food choices can enhance the patient experience, support organizational results and efficiencies, and contribute to community wellbeing.