Back to the Roots: Restoring Indigenous Food Landscapes in Canada

Bac k to the Root s Restor ing Indigenous Food Landscapes

The Wild Salmon Caravan raises awareness of the important role that Indigenous Peoples play in the conservation of wild salmon.

Photo courtesy of Dawn Morrisson. D awn Morrison (Secwepemc) is the founder and curator of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Since 1983, she has worked in and studied horticulture, ethnobotany, adult education, and restoration of natural systems in formal institutions, as well as through her own personal and community healing and learning journey. Morrison has been dedicating her time and energy to land- based healing and learning, which led her to her life’s work of realizing herself more fully as a developing spirit-aligned leader in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement. She has consistently organized and held the space over the last 15 years for mobilizing knowledge and networks towards a just transition from the basis of decolonizing food systems in community, regional, and international networks, where she has become internationally recognized as a published author. Her work on Decolonizing Research and Relationships is focused on creating a critical pathway of consciousness where Indigenous Food Sovereignty meets social justice, climate change, and regenerative food systems research, action and policy, and planning and governance. Cultural Survival recently spoke with Morrison.

Cultural Survival: Tell us about your research and work with Indigenous food sovereignty and regenerative food systems.

Dawn Morrison: Following the traditional teachings and Indigenous ways of knowing, our research is participatory and largely based on oral history, storytelling, and traditional knowledge that Indigenous Peoples have entrusted to us. Based on the wisdom, knowledge, values, and strategies shared, we have developed the Decolonizing Food System: Cross Cultural Interface Framework to apply Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing to better understand how Indigenous food sovereignty can inform the movement towards a more regenerative, holistic health paradigm in the land and food system. We transcend linear Western science-based methodologies and observe ancient cultural protocols that guide the way w e see and learn about the world and our relationships to the land, water, people, plants, and animals that provide us with our food. We also lead research, action, and policy proposals in partnership with various Tribal and non-Tribal government agencies and organizations where we facilitate a deeper understanding of how Indigenous food sovereignty interfaces with colonial policy and governance.

One of our projects is the Wild Salmon Caravan, a project that celebrates the spirit of wild salmon through arts and culture and raises awareness of the important role that Indigenous Peoples play in its conservation. Wild salmon is the most important ecological keystone species in the 27 Nations of Indigenous Peoples who inhabit the westernmost province of Canada. The Caravan travels to ceremonies, feasts, and community forums hosted by Indigenous communities w here we discuss the importance of revitalizing inter-tribal relationships. The strength of Indigenous fisheries governance knowledge lives in the river systems and wild salmon migratory corridors that connect us all. The 5th annual caravan will begin on September 19 with a procession led by Indigenous knowledge holders and an art exhibit to inspire and educate about the need to dismantle structural racism in the food sys tem policy. An online panel discussion will follow to engage Indigenous thought leaders on the topic of Indigenous Peoples and wild salmon conservation.

I n addition, the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty is developing a third project, the Indigenous Food and Freedom School. The School is an emancipatory learning circle model that builds on the knowledge, wisdom, and values gained over 15 years of leading the movement. It engages two cohorts from diverse cultures in the underlying systemic issues impacting Indigenous Peoples’ access to land, water, and infrastructure to grow food. And it highlights the need to balance privilege and power enjoyed by mainstream society where White people enjoy the highest level o f comfort and three to four times the level of food security.

One of the cohorts is situated in East Vancouver, in one of Canada’s most food insecure and poverty stricken neighborhoods. We were awarded a residency at Strathcona Park, one of Vancouver’s most historic parks, where we are advocating for the restoration of Indigenous foodlands in a decolonial anti-racist framework. The Working Group proposes to test the Decolonizing Food System: Cross Cultural Interface Framework in an intermediary role between the Coast Salish, who have never ceded or surrendered their title and rights to

the land in Vancouver, to facilitate transformative engaged research with the cohorts and communities. According to Cease Wyss, a Squamish matriarch, the Strathcona Park neighborhood was once home to important traditional foods like blueberries, cranberries, and huckleberries, as well as huge cedar trees that were nourished by a whole network of fish bearing streams that would enter into the ocean nearby. Wyss’ local and traditional knowledge and decolonizing approach to permaculture and ethnobotany will guide the restoration of soils and forest ecosystems, and will serve as an important strategy for mitigating the impacts of climate change and social injustices experienced by Coast Salish a nd urban Indigenous Peoples in the neighborhood.

CS: What does Indigenous food sovereignty look like?

DM: Indigenous Peoples have lived the reality of Indigenous food sovereignty for thousands of years and have made major contributions to the food security of all Peoples. The Working Group has identified four central themes that have emerged in our work since 2006.

The first principle is the sacred responsibility to uphold the relationships to the land, water, people, plants, and animals that provide us with our food. Indigenous food sovereignty is given to us from the Creator, who placed us here and gave us our original instructions. Our right to adequate amounts of culturally appropriate foods in the forests, fields, and waterways is based on natural law and should not be constrained by colonial laws and policies. We eat food, it becomes us. Food comes from the land, so we are a part of the land. Our food gives us a sacred life energy and nourishes and heals our bodies, minds, and souls.

The second principle is the participatory action-oriented nature of food sovereignty. We must participate in Indigenous food related activities on a day to day basis to achieve food sovereignty and uphold our sacred responsibilities. This includes hunting, fishing, farming, gathering, preserving, preparing, sharing, and trading foods in a cooperative subsistence economy.

The third principle is self-determination and freedom from corporate control of the land and food systems. Selfdetermination is the ability to take care of ourselves and be self-sufficient in a web of relationships with our extended families, communities, and networks that transcend the in dividualistic values of capitalism.

The fourth principle is decolonizing policy, planning, and governance. While Indigenous food sovereignty is grounded in practice, it is being negatively impacted by the mechanistic worldview of the Western-based system of agricultural research and resource extraction that is favored in colonial frameworks. Indigenous food sovereignty cannot be achieved within the same institutional frameworks that were designed to dispossess us.

CS: What does a reciprocal relationship mean to you? DM: Reciprocity in our relationships is very important. It is in direct contrast to the neoclassic mindset underlying capitalist

resource-based economies. When we go out to harvest Indigenous foods or to plant a seed, we give an offering. Our economy begins with giving rather than taking. We do not view our food as a resource to be exploited. We eat food and it becomes us, therefore it is our relative. Our reciprocal relationship with the land, water, people, plants, and animals that provide us with our food in subsistence economies is the one of the most sustainable adaptation strategies of humanity. Giving, sharing and trading, and cooperating in reciprocal relationships is the basis of Indigenous food sovereignty.

CS: How do we dismantle structural racism in food systems?

DM: Indigenous Peoples play a key role in finding solutions to some of the world’s biggest social and ecological crises. W e are among the most vulnerable and experience a huge disparity in social determinants of health. We must shift the paradigm away from a productionist, resource-based economic model towards a just transition to a regenerative tribal economy spawned by Indigenous food sovereignty. There is a need to dismantle the White supremacist narratives of colonial agriculture and corporate capitalist economy in order to dismantle the institutional frameworks established in colonial governance. Deep and meaningful truth and reconciliation cannot happen in the same system that was designed to dispossess Indigenous Peoples.

What’s most positive in my mind is the expanding number of people of color who are coming together to make the changes needed and to support Indigenous Peoples in revitalizing the intertribal networks of giving, sharing, trading, and cooperating, where the strength of our knowledge lives. I have a lo t of hope for people. Humans want to work together. A lot of historical trauma has prevented people from doing that. But, there is tremendous healing happening right now, too.

CS: Tell us about some of your local Indigenous food sources.

DM: We’re in a crisis with the health of our Indigenous land and food system. Our wild salmon that once existed in huge abundance for thousands of years have been reduced to historically low numbers. This is a result of colonialism, capitalism, and greed. Our moose and elk were extirpated during the fur and food trade days when our part of the world was first being colonized. Many Indigenous nations have declared a state of emergency for food security because of declining access to traditional foods; many of the Nations and communities in northern, remote areas don’t have access to grocery stores and have always relied on this food. The climate crisis is changing our water cycle, which is one of o ur most important medicines that nourishes and regenerates the forests, fields, and waterways where our salmon, berries, and culturally important animals inhabit. Many of our families in my home Secwepemc territory still practice traditional harvesting and do what we can to protect the remaining fragments of those corridors.

L–R: Wild blueberries.

Photo by Marcy Leigh.

Drying salmon.

Photo by Phil Douglis.

Wild cranberries.

Photo by Theodore Garver.

PRESERVING OUR FOODS IS MEDICINE

Dehydrating kale. Below: Linda Black Elk showing off her zucchini carving skills.

Linda Black Elk

When we say “food is medicine,“ we do not mean it as a metaphor or a catchphrase. If we eat the things that we are supposed to be eating, we w ill not suffer from the diseases of colonization. Traditional foods have the medicine that our body needs to prevent and heal illness. These foods do not just feed and heal us physically, but also mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Traditional food is spirit food.

F ermented foods are essential to keeping us healthy during the age of COVID-19. Lightly fermented foods like maple vinegar and wozapi (berry sauce) are amazing for restoring and maintaining a healthy gut microbiome. Other fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and low sugar yogurt are im portant in the fight against COVID-19.

Many of us have been preparing for lean times. I believe that each individual should have enough food to last for four months minimum. If you have a family of five, that’s quite a bit of stored food. So how do we do this? What kinds of preservation methods are going to work?

Drying plants and meat is the simplest method of food preservation. It’s exactly what it sounds like—allowing air to dry food for long term storage. Different plants dry at different rates. Foods like apples and squash can be cut thinly, whereas nettles and other herbs can simply be dried on paper towels or cookie sheets or hung up. I dry everything, including summer and winter squash, nettles, lambs quarters, onions, ferns, berries, apples, root vegetables, echinacea, and sage, simply by laying them out on paper towels or by hanging them in bundles throughout my home or garage.

For air drying meat, my family sets up an insect screen and dries meat inside the screen on laundry racks or racks made from tree branches. Lots of people do not realize that you can safely air dry meat, but Indigenous Peoples have b een doing this for thousands of years. You do not even need smoke, although I love the flavor of smoked meat and it certainly keeps the bugs away if you do not have an insect-proof area.

I f you have a bunch of carrots from your garden, instead of composting all the carrot tops, you can dry them and use them as a parsley substitute. Put them in all of your homemade spice blends, which you can add to absolutely everything from macaroni and cheese to roasted chicken. If you have an abundance of apples on your tree, apple chips are delicious and easy to make. You can eat them as a snack, or you can

reconstitute them to use in all kinds of recipes, including a “dried apple pie” that will brighten any freezing cold winter day. If you have tons of zucchini, just cut it up and dry it so that you can have a filling, nutritious, and delicious addition to pasta dishes, soups, and gratins.

Dehydration is a faster and warmer way of drying foods, medicines, and meat. I use a dehydrator when I’m in a hurry for certain fruits and thicker veggies or some quick jerky, and when my countertops, ceiling, and walls just do not have enough room to hold more. Dehydration produces a different texture for many plants. Apple chips, for example, are more leathery and soft when air dried. If you want them a bit crunchy, a dehydrator works perfectly. I’ve never been able to air dry banana chips, but dehydrated banana chips are amazing. A ll you do is slice them and put them in the dehydrator.

Dr ied soup mixes like corn (I prefer dried hominy), peas, carrots, celery, or potatoes can all be dried and then mixed together so that you can just add a scoop to your next soup or stew. These are simple, yummy, and you can cater these mixes to your specific tastes. I add tons of dried garlic.

Dr ied rice and beans are essentials in my kitchen and I love that they make a complete protein in the absence of meat. Plus, you can add anything to a bowl of beans and rice to make a meal: nettle, dandelion, hot chilies, or a scoop of dried soup mix. If you’re drying your homegrown beans, h arvest the entire plant after the vines have turned completely brown and lay them on a tarp to dry in the sun until completely dried (this could take a week or more). Shell the beans into a shallow bowl or bucket (I use foil turkey roasting pans), and allow the beans to dry even further before packing them for long term storage. My friends in Mexico taught me to do t his and I have never had a problem with moldy beans.

Storing wild rice for decades can be kind of tricky. It’s already parched and dried, but it will remain edible for three

to five years. You can extend the shelf life of wild rice by doing a second parching, and also by packing it into bags with an oxygen absorber.

Have you ever tried freeze dried vegetables and fruits? In my opinion, freeze dried foods are infinitely more tasty than air dried foods and they last for up to 25 years. Freeze dried food also retains more nutrients than dried or dehydrated food. The downside is freeze dryers are expensive, but is an excellent way to preserve the bounty of your foraging, gathering, and gardening.

I recently noticed that there were some vegetables on my kitchen counter that had to get eaten or preserved right away. I cut up all those veggies: cucumbers, onions, rainbow carrots, green peppers, dill, and a single leftover jalapeño. In a separate bowl I mixed apple cider vinegar, maple sugar, and a little salt, then I poured it on top of the vegetables. I left it in the bowl on the kitchen counter overnight. The next morning, I put it all in a jar and stuck it in the fridge. These “refrigerator pickles“ will last three to four weeks.

A note about long term storage: oxygen is the enemy of food preservation. If you want to preserve dried, dehydrated, or freeze dried foods for the long term, you might want to invest in some mylar food storage bags and oxygen absorption packets. Your dried foods can last up to 30 years like this, and they’ll be as fresh as the day you stored them.

W e all need to learn to preserve foods and medicines w ithout the use of electricity. I certainly love to use a dehydrator, a freeze dryer, and even a freezer, but none of these methods will be useful in the case of mass electrical outages. Plus, isn’t it nice to preserve the bounty of Mother Earth without the use of fossil fuels? When you know how to do things, you f eel secure, safe, and wealthy.

Re cip e s

Simple Sauerkraut

• 2 medium heads of fresh cabbage • 1/4 cup kosher sea salt • Optional (for flavor): add caraway seeds, chopped jalapeño, red chilies, or whole garlic cloves • Glass jars with tight lids

Chop the cabbage as desired. Cover with the salt and mix in, grinding the salt into the cabbage with your hand. Stuff as tightly as possible into jars and seal. Keep on the kitchen counter for a few days to speed up the fermentation process.

Easy Kimchi

• 2 pounds Napa cabbage cut into bite size pieces • 1/2 pound daikon radish • 1/4 cup sea salt

Salt the cabbage and daikon. Let it sit for 2–3 hours. Drain well.

Then mix together: • 3 tbsp garlic minced • 2 tsp ginger minced • 1/2 cup chopped green onion • 2 tbsp salted shrimp or fish sauce (optional) • 3–8 tbsp kimchi pepper powder, depending on how spicy you want it. • 3–4 tbsp water (enough to make a paste)

Mix the above ingredients into a thick, but not dry, paste. Mix it into the salted cabbage/daikon. Stuff as tightly as possible into clean glass jars. Leave out to ferment.

We have “independence anxiety” because capitalism has conditioned us to be afraid of the natural world. Teach your children so that they’ll always have these skills and they’ll never have fears about food scarcity. None of this is hard; it’s just a matter of doing it. Not only will you feel empowered, but you’ll also be honoring your ancestors, who had to do these things to survive.

— Linda Black Elk (Korean/Mongolian/Catawba descendant) is an ethnobotanist specializing in teaching about culturally important plants and their uses as food and medicine. She is Food Sovereignty Skills Instructor at United Tribes Technical College. She is the author of Watoto Unyutapi, a field guide to edible wild plants of the Dakota people.