Hello,
I recently attended the 1st Annual Interior of B.C. Indigenous Food Sovereignty Conference in Penticton.
There were so many interesting discussions taking place, I wish I could have been several places at once! Tuesday, I attended two sessions entitled Food, Land and Culture, which were moderated by Jeannette Armstrong. Trudy Jack (Nla’kapmaux) gave a presentation about Spirit and Food, while Bernice and Laura gave a presentation about how to observe Nla’kapmaux mourning procedures. I also had the pleasure of leading a discussion about mapping indigenous foods.
On Wednesday I attended a presentation about the process of including Traditional Ecological Knowledge in land use planning, especially with regards to hunting. Next, Guy Dunstan gave an interesting presentation about how he currently uses traditional trading trails to trade salmon, while Dawn Morrison, conference coordinator, talked about funding Indigenous Food Soverignty projects.
All these thought-provoking sessions and discussions made me wonder what else is being developed in regards to Indigenous Foods around the world. I noticed that the Sliammon First Nation has a webpage about their traditional foods (found here) – do you have any experiences or information to share? We’d love to hear it!