Early June found us on the bus to Saskatoon for the third North American Indigenous Food Symposium, hosted by the Indigenous Peoples Program of the University of Saskatchewan. The event brought together a diverse group of people from across Saskatchewan, Canada and beyond to explore issues of food security, food safety and food sovereignty from Aboriginal perspectives.
The world’s indigenous peoples are the original locavores. Long, long before local eating was made hip by 21st century environmentalists and foodies, Aboriginal people were making resourceful and responsible use of indigenous plants and animals to sustain themselves year round in even the harshest climates.
Yet today, Canada’s Aboriginal people face innumerable food-related challenges that were unheard of even 100 years ago. One in four First Nations children live in poverty; diabetes among First Nations people is at least three times the national average; and more than 100 First Nations communities are under boil water advisories nationally.
It’s not rocket science to connect poverty, access to quality food and health. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN defines food security as “a condition in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
From Mi’kmaq traditional food systems in Nova Scotia, to urban food programs and community gardens in Saskatoon, to native permaculture design in New Mexico, the symposium explored the complex historical, political and social processes that impact indigenous food security.
The highlight of the event was most certainly our visit to Muskoday First Nation (just southeast of Prince Albert) to visit the Muskoday Organic Growers Co-op. Following a tour of the community, which includes 17 acres of certified organic potato production, a herd of 65 bison and community gardens, we were treated to a traditional feast cheffed up by David Wolfman, host of APTN’s Cooking with the Wolfman.
While our bison steaks were cooking, honorary chair and Elder Dr. Danny Musqua shared a childhood story that captured the profoundly relevant connections between food, culture, community and the environment. His description of the ingenious, year-round process of making pemmican inspired the following recipe.
Pemmican Recipe
Fall:
Gather wood for charcoal; mark trails to maple trees for spring.
Winter:
Eat pemmican as needed, when other food is not available; savour slowly to show respect and avoid indigestion; share with your community, especially those most in need.
Spring:
Tap sap from trees*; prepare birch pots for storage of sap; gather approximately 100 fist-sized rocks from the river; prepare willow branch tongs for lifting rocks; heat rocks in charcoal; put hot rocks in sap to boil (maintain boiling point by adjusting height of tripod over fire); use a flat stick with a hole in it to test readiness of sap (it’s ready with you can blow a sap bubble through the hole); store cooled sap in birch cups sealed with sap.
Summer:
Harvest wild strawberries, chokecherries, saskatoons, etc., as they come into season; place berries in leather bag with holes; squeeze the juice out of the bag (feed juice to Elders, babies and particularly helpful children); dry remaining berry flesh into cakes.
When the summer sun is at its highest and hottest, hunt animals for meat (bison or moose that have not yet begun to store fat for the winter); in hottest weather dry the meat in the sun; smoke with willow, maple or chokecherry for different flavours; boil bones to collect marrow.
By mid to late August, all the ingredients have been collected to make the pemmican. Crush the meat and add marrow, berries and maple sugar as needed for preservation, and as desired for feel, taste and appearance.
Store pemmican in birch or leather bags lined with cedar to keep bugs away. Properly stored, it can last 10 to 15 years, to be savoured as needed.
* NOTE: we are non-indigenous and have never made pemmican ourselves (let alone by traditional means!) but should also mention that there is no single way to make pemmican. Ingredients and processes vary regionally, hence pemmican’s well-deserved standing as one of the ultimate local foods.
• Thought maple syrup was a treat reserved for Eastern Canadian locavores? Never fear! Assiniboine River Taps in Kamsack, SK (300 km east of ‘skatoon) produces Manitoba Maple syrup!
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