OUR FOOD

Thanks go to the people of Wei Wai Kum FirstNation (Campbell River Indian Band) Wei Wai KaiFirst Nation (Cape Mudge Band for being wel com -ing and generous. Our hands are also raised to themany people, from so many places, who helpedmake this conference an amazing experience.

This was the fourth annual Traditional Foodsconference. It has been growing in the level ofinterest and participation since the first one atSnuneymuxw First Nation in 2008.

This year, more than 200 delegates from throughoutthe Island registered before the conference andmany more signed in on Sept. 29 as the doorsopened at Thunderbird Hall.

The next two days were filled panel discussions,workshops, cooking and great feasts as knowledgewas shared amongst Elders and other learnedcommunity members as well as leading modernscientific researchers.

PANel tOPICsl Language, Food, Media and Youthl Harvesting Our Gardens (root and clam)l Health, Nutrition and Safetyl Traditional Medicines and Foods (Elders)

WORKsHOPsl Soapberry spoon makingl Traditional medicine bath saltsl Cedar and sweetgrass baskets

The second day at Cape Mudge village began atdaybreak with a pit being dug on the beach for slowbaking of root vegetables and shellfish. Meanwhile,salmon was being prepared for barbequing andsmoking in Tom Wilson's backyard.

As the food was cooking, delegates stopped by thecommunity hall for breakfast before heading out tolearn about traditional cooking methods.

Some even got their first opportunity to learn topaddle a canoe.

Later, everyone ate their fill of another feast. Theannual Vancouver Island Foods Champions awardswere passed out. The Champions are the greatpeople who work to keep traditional food knowledgeand practice alive in their communities.

Our hands are raised in thanks to all the partners,sponsors and participants who helped make the2011 event unforgettable.

A great two days of learning, feasting, talking, meeting new friends…

Our Partners

Aboriginal Health (VIHA) Wei Wei VICCIFN Conference Kwakiutl Campbell Firstand the Vancouver Island Wai Wai Network District River Nations

Health Authority Kum Kai Council Museum Health Council

F INAL REPORT ON THE 4TH ANNUAL

2011 Vancouver IslandTraditional Foods ConferenceVancouver Island & Coastal Communities Indigenous Food Network

The subject of the first panel discussion by KaraHenderson could have been the theme for the entireTraditional Foods conference.

‘Reviving Our Traditional Ways’ was the name of theCampbell River youth traditional foods projectcoordinated by Kara. “It put together awareness fromour elders to incorporateinto lesson plans that wecan use for years tocome.”

The year-long projectbegan in September2010 with lessonslearned about preparingfor the winter ahead. Thesalmon fishery wasstudied as were huntingdeer and elk as well ascanning and the smokehouse.

Later in the winter, Karasaid: “We went to thecarving shed with BillHenderson and he taught the youth the meaning ofthe wood and the different stories behind makingartwork.”

Other topics included traditional regalia, drum making,button blankets and cedar bark collecting.

Summer time was all about food including fishing(cleaning, cooking and the fish boiler) as well as berrypicking and harvesting shellfish.

“It was very successful,” Kara said. “We had a largegroup of our youth and the elders felt honoured tioteach our children their knowledge.”

Restoring traditional foodsAn exciting Traditional Plants and Foods program istaking place around Puget Sounds in Washington. Toexplain it all was herbalist, educator and author EliseKrohn from Northwest Indian College.

She said that the traditional foods program is guidedby seven principles:

1. Traditional foods are whole foods;2. Eat a variety of foods and eat with the seasons;3. Traditional foods are local;4. Wild and organic foods are better for health;5.Honour the food web/chain;6. Cook and eat with intention7. Food is at the center of culture

Elise also discussed themany ways that tribesaround Puget Sound arerestoring native foods.

They include community/family gardens; teachingthe next generation;restor ation projects torebuild ecosystems; andincreasing awarenessthat native foods aregood for individual healthand also for communityhealthy and for the land.

“They have incredible cultural wealth,” Elise said ofthe communities with which she works. “But oftentimes, they have simply forgot it. We will be talkingabout something like huckleberries, and suddenly Iwill see someone just light up and they will she theirstories and what have learned from their elders.

“You can see something come back to them, andthat’s what’s so special. That is what we’re after.”

Learning, eating… digitallyAt the 2010 conference, the Digital Storytelling was agreat success. This year’s conference heard morefrom the people from the 14 nations that make up theNuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. This time it was aboutthe Traditional Foods Toolkit.

Norine Messer spoke about the about the Uu-a-thluktoolkit and cook book.Uu-a-thluk means“taking care of” in theNuu-chah-nulthlanguage and is alsothe name of the tribalcouncil’s fisheriesdepartment.

The Uu-a-thluk teamconsists of peopleworking on capacitybuilding, communi -cations and biology, all led by elders and traditionalknowledge holders.

The new digital project was sparked by a presentationat a previous Traditional Foods conference. It wasseen as a great way to pass along all the ingredientsfor food sovereignty through theuse of traditional knowledge whichteaches self reliance, nutrition,pride for one’s heritage, andsustainability.

The series of six booklets containexclusive content for harvesting,preparing and eating traditionalfoods found on VancouverIsland’s west coast. These foods include sockeyesalmon, herring spawn, goose barnacles, sea urchins,chitons, wild roots, and eelgrass.

The language of food

Day 1 Agendal River Cleanse l Welcome, Hereditary Campbell River Chief

Dan Henderson; elected Campbell River ChiefBob Pollard; elder sophie Hanson, prayer;Introductions by John Rampanen, Curtis Wilsonand Conference Coordinator lavern Henderson

l language, Food, Media and Youth4 Uuathluck traditional Foods tool Kit and

cookbook – Norine Messer and youth4 N.W. Indian College traditional Foods and

Medicines Programs- elise Krohn4 Campbell River Youth traditional Foods

Project – Kara Hendersonl Harvesting our Gardens – Community Gardens,

Root Gardens, Clam Gardens4 KDC Community Gardens4 Uvic students – leigh Joseph – Rice

Root/Root Gardnes4 Dee and shirley Johnson – Clam beds and

fishing weirsl Health, Nutrition and safety

4 Peter Ross – scientist Fisheries and OceansCanada

4 Karen Fediuk – First Nations Nutrition andenvironment study.

l elders Panel: traditional Medicines and Foods:Reflections and wisdom for the next generation

l Prayer and Feast Dinnerl Cultural events and storytelling

the day began with a river cleanse

Read more about what’s going onaround Puget Sound at:l NWIC Cooperative extension

www.nwic.edu/content/communityl Feeding the spirit blog

http://feedingthespirit.wordpress.coml Puget sound Food Network blog

http://psfn.org/blog/2011/03/muckleshoot-tribal-cooks-retreat

elise Krohn,Herbalist, educatorekrohn@nwic.edu

More about the Traditional FoodsToolkithttp://uuathluk.ca

Access to Info

Learning and feasting… a great combination

She said the disappearance of estuary gardens wasmarked by a sudden shift to very processed foodsthat were high in sugars and saturated fats. “Thoseare causing diseases that were never present beforein our communities.”

Leigh also spoke about other estuary garden plantsincluding the Pacific silverweed and a lupine root thatwas eaten fresh.

Trapping fish andgardening clams

A four-year study of fish traps and clam gardens inLaich-Kwil-Tach territory revealed sophisticatedpractices up to 1,000 years ago in the Campbell Riverarea. Anyone who thinks that aquaculture is a newthing better think again!

“They were built in strategic places and in specificformations to maximize catch,” presenter Dee Cullonsaid. And there were lots of them.

“Virtually anywhere where itmade sense for clams to begrowing… these clam gardenswere being built.

“Rocks were removed from thebeach and placed at the verylow tide line. In the process, awall was built and over theyears sand and shell movedinto the inside of the wall and the beach leveled off.”

The research project found more than 240 clamgardens in the area. The ranged in size from just afew meters to a kilometer in length.

“There is still ahuge amount ofterritory to go outand survey.”

Hundreds of fishtraps were alsoidentified in theterritory. Series of traps were found on a sandbar nearCampbell River and in rocky shorelines near BlackCreek.

“One trap at Black Creek shows continual use for 700years and then abandonment about 1,000 years ago. That was about the same time that Comox Harbourbecame more intensively used.”

Both fish traps and clam gardens showed that a largerange of technologies were used, over centuries, inorder to harvest food from the sea.

Dee said that evidence of estuary root gardens wasalso discovered during the search for gardens andtraps along the coast.

National food study a firstThere have been many studies done to understandchanges in diet and assess environmental safety offoods among the general Canadian population. Butonly now is a comprehensive study being done tounderstand the total diet of First Nations.

Karen Fediuk, a familiarfigure at past conferences,is a dietician and nutritionist.She gave a report on theFirst Nations Food, Nutrition& Environment Study.

In addition to total diet, it islooking at the nutrition oftraditional foods as well astheir environmental safety.Along the way, it is alsoanswering importantquestions such as:4 How well are people eating?4 What kinds of traditional and market foods are

people eating? and4 Food Security: What does it mean?

An ongoing concernThe first Traditional Foods conference was a directresult of a pioneering study by a group of scientistswho were asked about the level of contaminants inthe seafood eaten by First Nations people.

One of them – Dr. Peter Ross, a marine mammaltoxicologist with the Institute of Ocean Sciences inSidney – joined us for the fourth year to discuss thework.

He spoke about implicationsfor coastal First Nations fromthings such as PCBs, dioxinsand other contaminants.

Although PCBs have beenbanned, they are persistentand represent an environ -mental concern.

But the good news is thatPCB levels in traditionalfoods have declineddramatically since the 1970sand the no one should beafraid to eat nutritional traditional foods.

“The benefits largely outweigh the risks,” he said.

Garden project grows up!

“We see families working together side by side. It’sespecially nice to see several generations in there atonce as well.”

That’s Patricia Wilson telling the story of KwakiutlDistrict Council Health’s community garden at CapeMudge. She told how it grew over an abandonedtennis court and former sawmill site into a uniquecentre with an emphasis on both traditional andmodern plants.

The project is now three yearsold and is growing in moreways than one. More than 50green-thumbers are tendingthe plants and learningimportant lessons.

She said the garden providesmany things including:4 A better diet;4 A sustainable space;4 Physical activity; 4 Greater environmental awareness; and4 Stronger community bonds.

The addition of traditional food and medicine plantshas taken the garden to a new level, Patricia said.“We created language signs, placed on cedar sticks,explaining the use of traditional foods.”

Restoring an estuary

Estuaries were once like supermarkets, providing usa diet rich in nutrients, proteins and healthy fats to

Leigh Joseph is a Masters’ student at UVic. Her workis focussed on restoring the Northern rice root to theSquamish estuary.Extensive networks ofhighly cultivated gardensin estuaries around ourcoast. Root vegetableslike the rice root werevalued source ofcomplex carbohydrates,proteins, fibers andhealthy fats.

“They were sustainable for generations,” Leigh said.“But it went unnoticed. European settlers arrived, theylooked and saw a landscape that looked like it wasbeing wasted.”

The garden has become a great place to network.

A classic example of a clam garden

Wea Wai Kaiwww.wewaikai.com

Wei Wai Kum First Nationhttp://www.crband.ca

Interview with leigh Josephhttp://seatoskyreport.wordpress.com/tag/northern-rice-

root/

Rice root photowww.flickr.com/photos/thehartfords

laich-Kwil-tach treaty societyhttp://www.lkts.ca

Food, Nutrition & environment studyhttp://www.fnfnes.ca

environmental contaminants in traditionalseafoods study

http://www.indigenousfoodsvi.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2008-final-report.pdf

Access to Info

Photo courtesy ofHartfords via Flickr

I remember being a little kidand this older woman hadarthritis really bad. She askedme to go get some of thosestinging nettles and devil’sclub. She said, “I’ll give yousome money.” And I thought,‘Holy smokes, that soundsgood’ so I went and I didn’tknow what they were, but Ifound out when I went to takethem!

My hands were stinging…but I wanted the money. So Itook the whole roots out.

As a little boy I was really cu-rious what she was going to dowith it. She said that wouldtake away the pain and sheshowed me how. It was awe-some.

* * * * * * *I remember looking at my grandmother’s storage shed; all therows on top. The first row was for the salmonberries, the secondrow was for the blueberries… rows of blackberries and apples.They were used throughout the year.

The trouble in our communities, even with myself; I have be-come too commercialized, to easy for the access of food. Eatingtoo much of this or too much of that. But I realized how impor-tant it was for me, at least once or twice a week, to have some ofour traditional foods.

* * * * * * *It begins in your family. Teach your children about how thingswere done a long time ago.

We used to get together as families, cutting fish and hanging it. Allfamily members got their share.These things are diminishing, soit’s up to me to say ‘Okay, what are we going to do in our commu-nity?’

* * * * * * *We had our own medicine. We had our own way of healing. Butnow it’s so easy for our people to get so-called medicines. Doctorsperscribe everything. We once just used the medicines that were inour territory.

Sometimes it meant going a great dis-tance, with buckets and buckets, sothat we would have enough food forthe winter.

* * * * * * *We had our own root cellar. We hadno backhoes; it had to be dug byhand… There was no electricity, nopower saws, everyone had their job todo, without question. Everyone in ourvillage had to work.

* * * * * * *There are still some who carry onwith the old methods because they donot have running water, electricity orcentral heating. To all those familieswho are able to maintain our tradi-tional foods 24/7 and 12 months out of

the year, my heart goes out to you.

* * * * * * *Sometimes the old ways are the best way.

* * * * * * *The future is always good. Things change, but we have to do ourbest to keep some things from our past in our present.

Reflections and wisdom from the elders

James Quatell

Susan Pacquette

The first day ended with an amazing exhibition of woven blankets (inset left) and dancing. But the day was too long for some, like Curtis Wilson’s son (inset right).

Day 2 Agendal Pit Cook Preparationl Breakfast and Registrationl Opening of the day and welcoming to the

community- Chief Ralph Dick4 smokehouse tour4 salmon stick making4 BBQ salmon Cook4 Bentwood Box demonstration

l Keynote talk - Joan Morris and thiago4 storytelling-Daniel and sophie4 Museum tour available (including petroglyph

rubs)4 Canoe Journey4 traditional Plants workshop- June Johnson4 Cedar Basket Making- Wayne Bell

l Opening of the Pitl Prayer and Feast

l Community Food Champions Awardsl Melody Charlie- traditional Foods and Heart Health

presentationl Museum tour (petroglyph rub)l traditional Foods Fear Factorl Medicine Balm Workshop - elise Krohnl Community Garden tourl traditional Modelling Projectl Joan Ryan- sweetgrass basket workshop

A Cape Mudgewelcome

At The PitAs the tide was dropping, thesecond day of theconference began just afterdawn on the shoreline atCape Mudge. When thewood fire had burned to hotembers, stones were placesin the pit along with salal andskunk cabbage leaves. Asthe root vegetables werecooking, water was pouredinto kelp tubes to keep thefood steaming.

Salmon… thegood way

At the far end of CapeMudge village, cedarstakes were being split,salmon was being filletedand a fire started for thebarbeque. A steadystream of visitors came tolearn about the traditionalway of preparing andcooking fish and thenearby smokehouse wasfired up to show anotherway of preserving fish forthe winter.

Chief Ralph Dick was interviewed by APTN

Many learned to paddle for the first time in the Pulling Together workshop

Joan Morris of Songhees spoke about ethnobotanyThe feast at the community hall

Workshops and displays for every interest

The Vancouver Island & Coastal Communities IndigenousFood Network had a great display (above) while local school

children (below) learned, and ate, a lot.

We have come far since April 5, 2008 when wegathered at snuneymuxw First Nation to celebrateour traditional foods at the first conference. today,more and more communities along our coast areshowing the way to others about good food, goodnutrition and good times!

Growing at Halalt

Lorraine Thomas reports that the Halalt greenhousehas been completed. Many of us gathered for a workday in early 2010 to raise the frame. We are glad tohear that a variety of vegetables were grown this pastseason. “Thank you to one and all who helped withthe greenhouse frame raising,” Lorraine says.

Good practicesIn late November, K'omoks First Nation hosted a two-day training session entitled Good Agricultural andCollection Practices. The first day was all aboutgathering herbs, spices and other foods.More info athttp://www.firstnationswildcrafters.com

HorticultureThe horticultural therapy certificate program is againavailable in Vancouver at VanDusen BotanicalGarden starting in January, 2012. More info:http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/vandusen/website/adultEducation/hortTherapy

Healthy eating“Healthy Eating and Food Security for UrbanAboriginal People Living in Vancouver” is the title ofa recent report at http://www.culturalcompetency.ca

Hands raisedin thanks

this conference would not have been possible

without the hard work, and

good hearts, of people from

throughout our commun -

ities, especially those from

Wei Wai Kai and Wei Wai

Kum. the Coordinating

Committee for the confer -

ence included: Gary Ardron,

Ben Badgero, Marion

Atkinson, Fiona Devereaux, lavern Henderson,

Mary Henderson, Cindy Inrig, Noreen Messer,

Brody Naknakim, Kathleen Power, Kim Roberts,

Peter Ross, erin Rowsell, Debbra thomas, lynda

Unterthiner and Patti Wilson. thanks also to Mark

Kiemele for this report and sarah Cormode for

the conference blog.

About the t'eq'wa logothe wonderful t'eq'wa (octopus) logo that was used for theconference was designed by Curtis Wilson who also playedan active role through out the event as a speaker, singer anddrummer. As well as being an accomplished artist, Curtis isserving his third term on the Wei Wai Kum council.

stay in touch through the Vancouver Island andCoastal Communities Indigenous Food Network(VICCIFN). One of VICCIFN’s main aims is to buildcollaborative approa ches in addressing issuesof traditional food access and security. Weintend to research, document and share thisdeeply-rooted knowledge for future generations.Join the listserve at viccifn@gmail.com

Traditional Food News

The 2011 Vancouver IslandFOOD

CHAMPIONS

Community Food Champions of 2011 were honouredas the conference came to an end. Championsdedicate time, passion and energy. to Indigenousfoods, the land and their communities. They are theroots that mature the growth of the branches andleaves of the future.

Pictured (from left) are: Cindy Inrig, Patti Wilson,Sandy George, Raven Hartley, Wilfred George, JenMcMullen, Deb Thomas, Earl Claxton Jr, Della RiceSylvester, JohnWilliams, LavernHenderson and MaryHenderson.

Other Championsinclude Gary Ardron,Joan Morris, ErinRowsell, KathleenPower and CoreyFrank.

Our apologies to any-one not mentioned.

Fear FactorOne of the most popular (and yucky!) events at everyconference is the Traditional Foods Fear Factor.Young people competed to consume (without chok-ing) a variety of often strange looking and tastingfoods. Elders and other experts were on hand to giveguidance and support.

Kathleen Power andLavern Henderson

www.indigenousfoodsvi.ca

Fiona Devereaux and Earl Claxton Jr.