Qwelmínte Secwépemc: Indigenous land stewardship and future leaders

By Bonnie Klohn, KFPC

One of the core values of the Kamloops Food Policy Council is Indigenous Food Sovereignty: decolonizing relations and the restoration of ecological food systems. We are often investigating how to live out this value as a food system organization. While answers to this question are both numerous and complex, following Indigenous leadership is one of our key principles.

The Kamloops Food Policy Council is an active supporter of many Indigenousled organizations such as the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Q’wemtsín Health Society, Community Futures Central Interior First Nations, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Community Services, River Select Fisheries Cooperative and the Upper Fraser Indigenous Sustainable Harvesters Association. We have learned immensely from building these relationships and actively seek to deepen our knowledge and our actions that can advance their work. Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to learn about Qwelmínte Secwépemc. Recently, I spoke with Tamara Archie, their Communications, Community

Engagement, Education & Outreach (CCEEO) Manager about the organization, and I wanted to share insights from our conversation in the context of Indigenous Food Sovereignty.

Qwelmínte Secwépemc is a collective of leadership from six Secwépemc communities, focused on providing research, knowledge and insights for informed decision-making at government-togovernment tables. The organization helps to restore Secwépemc jurisdiction in relation to yecwminúl’ecwemwhich means to take care of the territory/ land.

The work of Qwelmínte Secwépemc impacts the way the forests are managed, the effects of resource extraction and industry, and ultimate benefit or consequence for its communities. These factors directly influence the health of Indigenous food systems, including the availability of cultural and medicinal plants in the forest understory, the strength of wildlife such as deer, elk, and moose, as well as the condition of the waterways, fish, and salmon.

Qwelmínte

Secwépemc is guided by Secwépemc laws which revolve around the ancient ancestral and contemporary ongoing caretaker or stewardship role of Secwépemc lands. This stewardship role is called yecwemíñem and the organization fulfills this role through: a commitment to reconciliatory relationships with government; building Secwépemc law and land management capacity; and addressing socioeconomic gaps by developing new fiscal relationships.

The Qwelmínte Secwépemc team simultaneously works to fulfill this role and these duties, while at the same time using the opportunity of these initiatives to train the next generations of Indigenous leaders. There is a strong and robust Knowledge Builders Program that is a crucial part of the work of the organization. This summer intern program brings Secwepemc language, law, and governance training to Indigenous students. The program emphasizes the importance of “walking on two legs” by balancing Indigenous knowledge and Western science and education. Each intern chooses a topic based on their educational background and what would be supportive for the governmentto-government tables.

The Knowledge Builders Program also aims to revitalize relationships with the land, Elders, and knowledge carriers, all of which are crucial for Indigenous Food Sovereignty. The program’s practical component covers cultural land, hunting and fishing protocols.

The summer speaker series is another important part of Qwelmínte Secwépemc’s work. The speaker series aims to bring in Elders to share their knowledge with the community. This year, the speaker series is open to all members of the signatory communities as well as non-Indigenous allies. The speaker series is hands- on and covers a range of topics that overlap with food sovereignty, including traditional fishing tools, language, and archaeology.

Qwelmínte

Secwépemc is an important example of restoring Indigenous jurisdiction over land stewardship (a necessary condition for Indigenous Food Sovereignty to thrive) and training future leaders to carry this work forward through the generations.

As a team member of the Kamloops Food Policy Council, seeing the importance of restoring Secwépemc jurisdiction over land stewardship, as well as the ways Qwelmínte Secwépemc has been effectively doing this, has been a vital in understanding how to advance our goal of “decolonizing relations and the restoration of ecological food systems”.

I am looking forward to the Qwelmínte Secwépemc summer speaker series and hope that you consider signing up for our newsletter to stay informed about these events and more Indigenous Food Sovereignty education and action opportunities.

Sign up now at kamloopsfoodpolicy council.com/.