The Labrador Anchor Collaborative Team sparks conversations around four connected questions whenever we visit communities:
What’s your favourite traditional Labrador food?
What are some barriers to obtaining country food?
What traditional Labrador food would you like to see in our healthcare facilities, starting with our long-term care?
How do you think it would make you feel to eat traditional foods in long-term care?
Deep within communities, we learn firsthand about unique community cultures and build relationships. This knowledge and these relationships are built on as we move forward with our work as a collaborative.
Traditional Foods: Insights from Communities
Traditional foods can include both wild foods (e.g. berries and game meat) and foods grown in Labrador (e.g. turnip greens and root vegetables).
We served caribou soup at our community meal in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
After many conversations about traditional food, there were some clear favourites. Most people mentioned duck, porcupine, trout, moose, turnip greens, and, last but not least, caribou.
Unfortunately, Labrador caribou are part of the George River Caribou Herd and have been included in a province-wide hunting ban since 2013. The decline of the herd and the hunting ban have affected Indigenous people’s identity, culture, emotional well-being, food security, and more. This article has more information about the impacts on Inuit.
People Fear the Skills Are at Risk of Disappearing
Traditional food isn’t only about eating the meal. Culturally preparing the meal is equally important and you can learn how to do this firsthand in communities. Some on our Team cleaned a partridge for the first time in Gull Island. They also learned how the “crop” of a partridge was once used to forecast storms and is still practised today in many homes.
Many knowledge keepers are eager to share their skills and tell stories of days when living off the land was all they knew. However, people fear these skills are at risk of disappearing. Many told us that ageing hunters and health ailments mean that hunting and harvesting aren’t done like they once were.
Several Indigenous groups have started initiatives to bring youth and knowledge keepers together to pass on the knowledge. A few members of our Team witnessed parts of this in one community. High school students trekked out on the land with local knowledge keepers to hunt and clean partridge. Local elders and students then prepared the partridge and shared it within the community. These life skills can’t be taught in the classroom but school leaders see their importance.
Hunters Have to Travel Further and Further
We also heard about the rising costs of getting out on the land. Hunters have to travel further and further for a successful hunt because of the changing climate. The rising cost of gas/ammunition is making it nearly impossible to justify the trek.
Indigenous governments and organizations understand this struggle. They have implemented hunter/gatherer initiatives to help with the financial burden.
The Power of Traditional Foods in Long-Term Care
Many families in Labrador have a relative/friend residing in long-term care or know of someone living there. Relatives often have to leave their families and communities to enter long-term care homes. For some, it’s not easy to talk about.
Nourishing Them With Traditional Foods They Know and Love
One thing that could remove some of the worry is knowing that their loved ones are dining on the food they’ve eaten all their lives.
Rita, a long-term care resident, enjoying some homemade caribou soup, partridgeberry juice, and live music (photo credit: Happy Valley-Goose Bay LTCH).
Everyone we spoke with wanted the best for the elders in their lives. That includes nourishing them with traditional foods they know and love. All communities were eager to say they wanted to see the ducks, trout, moose, caribou, partridge, and local berries served in long-term care.
“He Certainly Ate All of His Caribou Soup”
We saw the benefits of traditional foods in long-term care during a Labrador Anchor Collaborative prepared meal. One resident said that her husband lives with dementia and “wasn’t eating much but he certainly ate all of his caribou soup.”
During these meals, we see that food is medicine. Traditional food can offer physical, mental, and spiritual comfort and healing.
Incorporating more traditional food into our long-term care homes is a reachable goal. We imagine a future where these items are on all long-term care and healthcare facilities’ menus.
