Can selling traditional food increase food sovereignty for First Nations in northwestern Ontario (Canada)?

Abstract

Abstract The disparity between rates of food insecurity experienced in households across Canada (8.3%) and in Indigenous households specifically (nearly half) is alarming. Many previous studies have demonstrated the physical, spiritual, mental, social and emotional benefits of consuming traditional foods (primarily wild animal food sources and wild edible plants), yet many Indigenous peoples in northern Ontario feel they do not have access to enough of them. Our research engaged in conversation with sixteen participants from four different First Nations communities in northern Ontario to explore the potential application of Greenland’s “Country Food Market” (CFM) as a model to increase accessibility of traditional food while maintaining community sovereignty over the resource. In this model, full-time hunters are financially sustained through selling their harvest at local markets. While participants were curious about the potential an economy around traditional food could have for improving access, this was tempered by cultural ethics, teachings and laws which instruct hunters to share their food and by concerns of resource overexploitation. As our research confirms, conversations and actions must move away from a binary approach to the question—either to sell or not to sell—and move toward a diverse range of economic models that center Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty.