Part 1, Indigenous Food Systems: Indigenous food systems are the origins of the world’s food supply [1]. Indigenous foods are the traditional foods harvested from the land or water, including wild game, fish and berries. Harvesting Indigenous foods are central to Indigenous people’s identity, culture, health and self-determination [1]. Indigenous food systems provide sustenance connected to land, territories, stewardship, identity, way of life and spirituality. Indigenous food systems were largely intact in mid-western Canada up until the signing of the Numbered Treaties (2). Although much Indigenous food-related knowledge remains, knowledge transmission and access to land have been disrupted by colonialism.

Indigenous food systems in Canada require revitalization, as indicated by the high rates of food insecurity in Indigenous communities. Roughly half (50.8 percent) of households within First Nation reserves (First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2018) experienced food insecurity, and 75 percent of homes in northern Manitoba communities before COVID-19 were food insecure (2). This means most First Nation households in communities had inadequate or unstable access to nutritious food due to financial constraints, before COVID-19, compared to 1 in 8 Canadians (4.4 million Canadians). Clearly, food security in First Nations needs urgent attention, which requires food security action plans and education.

We worked with the Mino Bimaadiziwin Partnership and their Kitigay Project in the fall term. “Kitigay”, the Anishinaabe word meaning to plant, describes the hope for this post-secondary education. This program is to grow plants but also ideas of reconciliation, Indigenous food sovereignty and food businesses. We worked with 14 youth from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation (BON) and examined how community members view food production, land management, and conservation. We spent time understanding the fuller meaning of the land and how BON imagines how to work with it to address their needs and remain good stewards of the gifts and relations of the land.

1. Shailesh, Shukla. Indigenous food systems : concepts, cases, and conversations. Toronto, Canadian Scholars, 2020.
2. Fieldhouse, Thompson. Tackling food security issues in indigenous communities in Canada: The Manitoba experience. 2012. Nutrition & Dietetics, Vol, 69, Issue 3 /p. 217-221.

Part 2: This term, our studio has been fortunate to be invited to collaborate with the One House Many Nations (OHMN) project¹, spearheaded by Dr. Alex Wilson, Professor and Director of Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan and the community of BON. She and members of her team have been awarded with the Making the Shift (MTS) grant, a fund aimed at supporting the development of tiny homes for 5 First Nations communities across the land now known as Canada. In this grant, five communities are identified and work directly with the youth to build a tiny home in each community before being given to an identified member of that community who is experiencing homelessness.

 The MTS project purchased a construction trailer that was envisioned to become a Mobile Indigenous Design and Build Lab. Through our multi-year collaboration, and this semester’s studio project, this trailer was converted through a hands-on design/build studio project and is now poised to be a critical resource that provides the equipment, shelter, resources, safety, and infrastructure necessary to carry out a full construction project, guide teachings, connect, feast, and dream into how to build homes in First Nations communities.

1. The OHMN project emerged from the Idle No More campaign (of which Dr. Wilson is a founding member) to raise awareness of and provide solutions to the housing crisis on FN reserves in Canada. The project explores how buildable and culturally appropriate homes can address the financial, technical, and political barriers to build housing on (especially) remote FN reserves.