Introduction and Intention
For First Peoples, our lands have historically provided us with sustenance, nourishment and medicines that have maintained our health and well-being since time immemorial. Our food systems and land-based ways of life, nurtured within our social, spiritual, and cultural ways of being, are our processes of sharing and practicing knowledge and values. During this time of reclamation, a growing consensus from mainstream society and science is sharing and demonstrating what Indigenous peoples have known all along: that strong connections to land and food systems results in improved physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional health.
First Peoples across British Columbia are diverse, yet share a common goal: to protect our food systems and support the health and well-being of our communities and future generations. With the release of the 2019 Canada Food Guide, Health Canada committed to working with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit partners to support the development of Indigenous-led health eating (food wellness) tools that recognize and honour the specific and unique cultures, traditions, foods, languages, knowledges and needs of First Peoples. Rooted in this commitment, a working group entitled the Indigenous Food Wellness Advisory was created; Indigenous food champions from across B.C. brought together to reimagine food wellness for the First Peoples of these lands.
First Peoples Food Wellness Hub
The need for distinctions-based food wellness tools for the First Peoples of these lands has been raised by the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), regional health authorities’ Indigenous health team leaders, the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, as well as from First Nations communities directly. In 2022, a tripartite partnership was formed between I·SPARC, Sa̱nala Planning, and the B.C. Ministry of Health, with support from Health Canada, to begin a multi-year, province-wide engagement process to first determine what type of ‘food wellness tool’ would be most helpful to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples across B.C. in supporting their families and communities. This needed to consider the geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the territories. The First Peoples Food Wellness Hub was created to honour and raise up the diversity of Indigenous knowledge around food wellness and holistic health to support the well-being of Indigenous peoples in B.C. This living website acts as knowledge basket full of incredible region-specific resources that already exist, as well as making space for future tools and resources to be shared and uploaded. This virtual space shares and honours resources related to food and wellness while recognizing the geographic and cultural diversity of First Peoples in B.C., and was created through a process that’s Indigenous-led, trauma-informed, self-determined, and honours Indigenous food sovereignty.
Resource Hub Intention
The intention of the First Peoples Food Wellness Hub is to honour and raise up Indigenous knowledge around food wellness and holistic health to support the well-being of Indigenous peoples across B.C.
