On a sweltering day in late August, reporter Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood and photojournalist Jesse Winter were driving to the small village of Chase, in British Columbia’s Interior — about 12 kilometres away from an area razed by the fastest-moving wildfire in the province’s history, just the week before.
Before a warming planet posed new challenges, the ongoing impacts of colonization had already created food insecurity for First Nations. The onset of the hottest summer ever made our B.C. team wonder: how exactly will this affect the communities that are working toward food sovereignty?
So, over the span of a week, Steph travelled across the province to talk to those who are taking back the ability to feed their communities. Their stories of finding hope, and solutions, amid a rapidly changing climate have culminated in a brand-new series we just launched: Nourish.
For the first piece in Nourish, Steph spoke with people in Secwepemc territory who have long been dedicated to Indigenous food sovereignty.
“As Dawn Morrison, who has been working on Indigenous food sovereignty for two decades and runs the Cwelcwelt Kuc Garden, told me about her cousin’s house that just burned down, the smoke became thicker,” Steph said, recalling feeling the smoke in her mouth and nose. “The house was a community hub with a freezer full of elk, bison and salmon that would feed the community this winter — all gone up in flames.”
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“It struck me that they’re trying to conserve water, push for better policy and protect the land — all while figuring out how to put food on people’s plates,” Steph told me. “It doesn’t just have consequences on growing ancestral foods, but also community well-being.”
For Janice Billy, an Elder who helps with Morrison’s food sovereignty initiatives, revitalizing those food practices also means regaining connection with the language and land lost to a long legacy of colonial harms. “It’s not just learning the words of those foods, but it’s learning the values that go with it,” she said.
This is about a lot more than just food, Morrison told Steph. It’s about “social, cultural and ecological systems change,” she said.
Fires — or droughts, floods and habitat degradation — won’t stop Morrison, Billy and many others from working toward a food-sovereign future.
Go read Steph’s feature here, and keep an eye out for more stories that detail how First Nations are bringing food sovereignty back to the table.
Take care and feed the future,
Karan Saxena
Audience engagement editor
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This week in The Narwhal
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Many Manitoba parks are open to mining. Now an industry group wants to ‘suspend all protected areas’
By Julia-Simone Rutgers
Less than a quarter of Manitoba’s parks are protected from industry. As companies race to dig up minerals deemed critical to a low-carbon economy, exploration for new mines is ramping up in provincial parks.
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Alberta’s renewables pause is leaving billions of dollars in limbo. Here’s what you need to know
By Drew Anderson
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In its push to build houses, Ontario says energy efficiency has to wait
By Fatima Syed
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‘This has to stop’: oilsands, hydro dams continue to threaten Canada’s largest national park
By Sarah Cox
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‘Frustrating as hell’: advocates say old-growth still being cut years after B.C. promised protections
By Ainslie Cruickshank
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What we’re reading
In Grist, Siri Chilukuri asks: to cope with extreme heat, is it time for the world to take a siesta?
Vox’s Rebecca Leber breaks down the unpredictability of climate disasters.
Carbon capture or Big Oil greenwashing? For the Guardian, Oliver Milman looks into a new facility being built in Texas.
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