Northern food security

With rising rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the region’s Aboriginal population, Nishnawbe Aski Nation is looking to improve access to healthy food in northern communities.

The political organization is in the midst of its fourth annual food symposium, a three-day event that kicked off Tuesday at the Best Western Nor’Wester hotel. The aim of the event is to discuss issues and ideas around food security in the 49 NAN communities.

“We’re here sharing all of the ideas, the different opportunities out there and just the knowledge,” said Mark Bell, symposium spokesman.

"We have youth. We have elders. We have a great mix of non-Natives and Natives coming together to share all of our ideas and really work together for the betterment of all of our communities.”

On Wednesday, the symposium participants headed to the Regional Food Distribution Association to learn about meal preparations and planning.

Bell said with resource development happening near many northern communities, there are concerns around how that development will affect the way people gather food resources. But one of the big focuses of the symposium is general education around diet, specifically making sure people with diabetes have the care and knowledge they need to lead a healthy life.

And with the high cost of transporting food to the remote communities, NAN is also focusing on returning to traditional food gathering like gardening and trapping and hunting.

“It’s our identity. It’s our way of life,” said Bell. “We really need to preserve the knowledge that’s out there.”

NAN has active elders participating in the three-day conference who are bringing their experience to the table and passing along that information.

Bell said in Aroland First Nation, many people are fishing regularly and the community is also active in the Blueberry Initiative, which sees the berries from the northern community sent to larger centres like Thunder Bay.

“In about another week-and-a-half to two weeks you’re going to start to see a lot of berries start to come into Thunder Bay,” said Bell.

“That’s a big initiative.”

More than 100 people are participating in this year’s symposium and Bell said the number of participants has been steadily climbing since the event’s inception.

This year everyone was encouraged to write down which topics they’d like to see addressed during the symposium and Bell said the response has been all about how the communities can move forward positively.

“It’s not about talking about the issues in the past. It’s about moving forward in the future and trying to live a healthy life,” he said.