Feasting for Change: Reconnecting with Food, Place & Culture

Abstract

This paper examines and shares the promising practices in promoting health and well-being that emerged from an innovative project, entitled "Feasting for Change". Taking place on Coast Salish territories, British Columbia, Canada, Feasting for Change aimed to empower Indigenous communities in revitalizing traditional knowledge about the healing power of foods. This paper contributes to a growing body of literature that illuminates how solidarities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities can be fostered to support meaningful decolonization of mainstream health practices and discourses. In particular, it provides a hopeful model for how community-based projects can take inspiration and continual leadership from Indigenous Peoples. This paper offers experiential and holistic methods that enhance the capacity for intergenerational, land-based, and hands-on learning about the value of traditional food and cultural practices. It also demonstrates how resources (digital stories, plant knowledge cards, celebration cookbooks, and language videos) can be successfully developed with and used by community to ensure the ongoing process of healthful revitalization.

Indigenous learning on Turtle Island: A review of the literature on land‐based learning

“…Sustenance practices such as hunting, fishing, and food preparation are common forms of land‐based learning activities. These activities are ideal learning situations because they involve cultural traditions and are therefore a means of reconnecting and revitalizing traditional Indigenous knowledge (Bagelman et al 2016). In eating food that originated from and was prepared on the land, Indigenous peoples are able to feel a deeper connection to their land and feel more grounded in their Indigenous knowledge (Gaudet and Chilton 2018).…”

More than what we eat: food as a relationship builder and cultural transmitter

“…First, the spiritual connection is mostly related to food and food practices, however community does play a small role in this connection. Indigenous communities had a strong spiritual connection to food and food practices (Bagelman, Devereaux, & Hartley, 2016;Cidro, Adekunle, Peters, Martens, 2015). Participating in traditional cooking methods, harvesting food, and communal gatherings to share food were ways for Indigenous people to connect spiritually to the earth, the food, and each other; these acts are seen as sacred (Bagelman et al, 2016;Cidro et al, 2015).…”

Promoting or Protecting Traditional Knowledges? Tensions in the Resurgence of Indigenous Food Practices on Vancouver Island

“…While some of these reserves were located at traditional village sites, many were not and often excluded camp sites used for seasonal fishing, hunting, gathering, or canoe building (Kelm, 1998). Scholars have claimed that this loss of connection to ancestral lands operated as a tool of colonialism by weakening traditional knowledges and the economic independence of Indigenous nations (Bagelman, Devereaux, & Hartley, 2016;Martin-Hill, 2009;Turner, 2005;Waziyatawin, 2012).…”

“…Through the combined efforts of Elders, activists, and grassroots organizations, new forums for teaching traditional knowledges are emerging, drawing on themes of feasting and commensality as avenues for sharing cultural knowledge. These public opportunities for knowledge transferal aim to re-infuse learning into a context where traditional food as an embodied daily norm is less tenable; specifically, they do this by reincorporating urban youth and disenfranchised community members into community and land-based knowledges (Bagelman et al, 2016). These spaces can take various forms; they may be coordinated within a particular community or facilitated by organizations that span between communities-such as Indigenous non-profit organizations, universities, or health advisory boards.…”