Indigenous Foods Go Digital
September 29, 2011 - 12:16pm | posted by: emilydy
Eelgrass and Herring Spawn are just two of the foodstuffs of focus in the six new booklets available as part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Traditional Foods Toolkit. Now available online, the six book collection teaches that food security begins at home.
In the midst of a last-minute packing flurry for a 5 day visit to Toronto, I stopped to consider what an incredibly different environment I was about to enter.
Here I was, on Vancouver Island, with a decades-old hazelnut tree gracing the centre view of my kitchen window and my house backed by a forest full of salal, mushrooms and berries. Not to mention the Cowichan River, whose heady flow would soon be full of salmon, lay just a short walk away. I made a joke to my roommate that instead of sweaters and shoes, I should be filling my suitcase with nettle and licorice fern. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find such locally commonplace items in a natural resource lunarscape like Toronto.
When I returned to work and read an email about a newly developed Traditional Foods Toolkit, a resource about harvesting and preparing traditional foods, and which shares the experiences, language, and knowledge of Nuu-chah-nulth elders- here I started thinking again about the abundance that surrounds us. Perhaps, instead of a Snickers, the snack that will satisfy your hunger is right outside the door.
Thank you to the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council fisheries department, who shared the following information about the Toolkit:
Eelgrass and Herring Spawn are just two of the foodstuffs of focus in the six new booklets available as part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Traditional Foods Toolkit. Now available online, the six book collection teaches that food security begins at home.Developed by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council fisheries department (Uu-a-thluk), the booklets contain exclusive content for harvesting, preparing and eating traditional foods found on Vancouver Island’s west coast. These foods include sockeye salmon, herring spawn, goose barnacles, sea urchins, chitons, wild roots, and eelgrass.
“Our ancestors have harvested wild foods for over 10,000 years and a number of our people still harvest wild food today,” says Nuu-chah-Nulth Tribal Council Vice-President, Priscilla Sabbas Watts. “This knowledge is more important than ever in the face of global food instability. Sharing this wisdom will make it more accessible to future generations.”
Vancouver Island residents live in one of the richest natural paradises on the planet, yet 90 % of our food comes from elsewhere. The Nuu-chah-nulth Traditional Foods Toolkit recalls a time when people made food choices based on what they found in their natural habitat, and not on supermarket shelves.
Encompassing a wealth of user-friendly information, the Toolkit includes six booklets:
- Eelgrass: “Candy of the Sea”
- Tips for Drying and Smoking Salmon
- Steam Pit Cooking
- Low Tide Foods
- Herring Spawn
- Reference Guide
Additionally, the booklets contain activities suitable for integrating into school curricula.
“The toolkit offers a tremendous opportunity to pass on traditional knowledge, which teaches self reliance, nutrition, pride for one’s heritage, and sustainability—all important to developing food sovereignty,” adds Sabbas Watts.
The booklets are on sale through the Uu-a-thluk website in downloadable formats. Proceeds go towards education and training programs for youth and others in Nuu-chah-nulth Nations.
