Access to traditional, sustainable foods is important for Indigenous people’s health and wellness
A message from Dr. Helena Swinkels, FNHA Office of the Chief Medical Officer, and Linda Pillsworth, FNHA Manager, Environmental Public Health Services, including traditional knowledge from FNHA Knowledge Keeper Syexwaliya / Ann Whonnock of Squamish First Nation
The historical & traditional relationship of Indigenous people to food
To Indigenous people, food has always been more than a source of nutrition to fuel our bodies through the day, and more than a source of pleasure. Food is our connection to all of creation and Mother Earth, which was given to all of us by the Creator to share. It fuels not just the physical body, but the mind and the spirit. Through harvesting, social gatherings, and ceremony, food brings family and community/social cohesion and facilitates the passing down of cultural traditions.
This year’s World Environmental Health Day highlights the need to keep our precious food and sacred water safe, plentiful, and health-giving by focusing on "Global Food Safety and Sustainability." It is a time for us to reflect upon the importance of healthy foods, lands and environments to the health and wellness of Indigenous individuals, families, and communities in BC and beyond.
Historically, Indigenous people had a close connection with the land and the resources it provided. Interaction with these resources required physical activity to be a part of daily lives and the people enjoyed good health as a result. The forests gave foods and medicines – including bark, roots, shoots, berries, herbs and leaves with cleansing, antiseptic and healing properties. Many of these properties were known and used well before modern-day medicinal products, and some of them are still utilized to this day. For example, the key ingredient in aspirin – acetylsalicylic acid – comes from red willow bark. The waters gave even more food, including salmon, oolichan, and herring, which have always been known as "brain food" and a natural source of calcium.
Foods that were taken from the natural world were honoured and respected, especially the wildlife. Indigenous people who hunt according to traditional teachings give thanks to the animal that gave its life for others’ survival. There is also a strong sense of the need for good stewardship and conservation among Indigenous people – that is, taking only what is needed and not depleting resources, always being mindful of future generations. With game, every part is used, nothing is wasted, and everything is always shared.
Through close observation and understanding of the lands, Indigenous people considered the cycle of seasons and abundance, being respectful of the delicate balance of the lands and the waters. Depletion of foods was avoided by living a nomadic lifestyle and rotating locations – by the time they returned to their original village, the foods had replenished. At the root of this practice is the concept of "seven generations ahead" – that everything we do has consequences, so we must consider what is best for the children seven generations ahead of you. The Indigenous way of life teaches that we are connected to everything, to take care of the earth so that it can take care of us and to be careful in the balance of all living things, taking only what we need.
Fast forward to the present: food safety and sustainability
In today’s era of growing human population and industrialization, land disturbance, waste discharges, unintended spills, and global and local climate change all adversely affect the abundance, access, diversity and, in some cases, the safety of foods. Warming oceans are expanding areas affected by harmful algal blooms, leading to shellfish contaminated with marine biotoxins that can have severe consequences if consumed. Warming river temperatures and low river levels continue to challenge salmon survival, a key food source for communities on the Pacific west coast. Consumption of food contaminated by waste discharges and unintended spills can present health effects through short term or chronic exposures. Some foods are already extinct in localized areas where they used to be abundant because of land disturbance. And forest fires threaten habitat for moose, bear and other animals important to Indigenous peoples. Emerging concerns are the long-term impacts of plastics and micro-plastics and extended impacts across food webs.
In addition to creating an unpredictable food supply, the effects of a changing environment and climate impact other species and our cultural and spiritual well-being: how can we be well when a mother whale so deeply and publicly mourns her dead baby, supported by a pod that is starving due to all of the same factors?
Addressing the problem of food safety & sustainability
The FNHA is working to encourage health systems to implement policies and practices that consider the interconnectedness of foods, lands and environment, as can be described within the BC First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness.
FNHA Elder Syexwaliya calls upon each of us, from every culture, to consider how food relates to your history, how your culture historically valued and protected food, and how you adapted to a changing environment. And to always remember that, "We are all connected."
About World Environmental Health Day
World Environmental Health Day was launched on September 26, 2011 by the International Federation on Environmental Health as a day to talk and think about the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health, with a view to preventing disease and creating health‐supportive environments. The International Federation of Environmental Health is concerned about the continuing threats to human health posed by pollution, climate change, urbanization, globalization and poverty, and the urgent need to adopt a preventive approach so as to maintain and improve the quality of the natural environment, air, water, food, housing, and communities in order to reduce the impact of disease and the public health.