Good morning.
Kitchi meegwetch, Sheri.
Food sovereignty is an issue of colonial policies. Indigenous nations in Canada have, and continue to deal with, a colonial food system that leaves many of these nations located in what can best be described as a food wasteland, and at worst imposes a lifetime sentence to what has been called a food prison. The effects of food insecurity and the departure from traditional or country foods have tremendous implications on health and well-being.
Indigenous people lead the list of food-related diseases, such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and kidney disease, due to decreased access to traditional or country foods, and from the imposition of a less-than-secure, less healthy and less sovereign food production and distribution system.
At the heart of the struggle for many indigenous communities is the continuation of anti-colonial struggles in even post-colonial contexts. Canadian government policies, including nutrition north, the food distribution system operated by the largest northern food retailer, the North West Company; the adverse multi-generational effects of residential schools, the Indian Act and the sixties scoop; and systematic and prevalent racism have eroded indigenous food sovereignty and indigenous faith in the established systems that were to secure a better food future.
Corporations that service communities remain profit-focused, and historically governments have generally used top-down policy agendas. These agendas result in adverse outcomes in indigenous communities. For example, up in northern Manitoba, food insecurity is at 60%, and in Inuit populations in Nunavut, it's at 70%.
Furthermore, communities such as Fort McPherson in the Yukon, Fort McKay in Alberta, Fox Lake in northern Manitoba, and the Eeyou Istchee are suffering from significant changes in the availability of food that has sustained them from time immemorial. These changes can be traced to climate change and resource extraction. What we really need to focus on, and what these communities are telling us, is that they draw their inspiration and support from going out on the land, fishing, hunting and gathering, and producing foods.