Today, Food First NL is proud to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day. We do so by celebrating Indigenous cultures, reflecting on Canada’s ongoing legacy of colonialism, and committing to take action to advance truth and reconciliation.
For thousands of years, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where we operate, is the homeland of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq of Ktaqmkuk, the Inuit of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut, and the Innu of Nitassinan. We recognize their continued ties to these lands and waters, their deep knowledge of foodways, and their right to self-determination. We encourage people across the province to celebrate these thriving cultures in ways that are meaningful and respectful, and to reach out to Indigenous groups in their area to learn what they have planned and to find out how to get involved.
At the same time, we call on Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to reflect on the five-hundred-year-old legacy of colonialism that continues to inflict systemic violence against Indigenous Peoples, both in our own province and across Canada.
That violence included the deliberate construction of food systems that were – and remain – deeply intertwined with racism, colonialism, and other modes of oppression. Then as now, the deliberate dispossession of land by settlers has resulted in food insecurity that remains disproportionately high among Indigenous people. Canada’s Food Guide was initially developed in part through experimentation on Indigenous children in residential schools. Land and fisheries management practices continue to restrict Indigenous rights in countless ways. Many barriers stand between putting traditional foods on tables and trays in schools and hospitals.
As important as it is to name these things, naming them alone is not enough. Food First NL believes that our own support for reconciliation must be material. We have assigned staff and board resources to support this work, and are putting an Indigenous lens on our own internal structures. We are prioritizing Indigenous-led partnerships and helping to secure resources to support Indigenous-led work. As part of the Atlantic Food Systems Recovery Vision, we endorse its calls to support Indigenous food sovereignty, ways of knowing, and partnership.
As a Contributor to First Voice, an urban Indigenous coalition based in St. John’s, Food First NL supports the full implementation of the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
As a food organization, we are particularly committed to advancing action on MMIWG 4.1, 4.7, and 12.4, which call on organizations and governments at all levels to support the inherent social and economic rights of Indigenous Peoples by improving access to food and other necessities of life. We must commit ourselves as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and as Canadians, to take meaningful and sustained action to reconcile with past and present wrongs in order to build a more equitable future for all.
