Nourishing Culture and Community: Exploring Food Sovereignty in Qualicum First Nations on Vancouver Island

Abstract

Although increasing urbanization has benefitted the west through economic growth, improved service provision, technological advancements, and increased access to education, it has had negative consequences for many other aspects of western society, including air and water quality, health, and food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is defined as the right of people to have culturally appropriate and healthy food, produced sustainably and ecologically, including a person’s right to define their own food and agriculture system. In Canada, and particularly among the First Nations of the West coast, there has been a decrease in food sovereignty due to the growth of urbanization. Qualicum First Nations (QFN) is an Indigenous community located on Vancouver Island on Coast Salish territory, where members of the Nation are faced with various obstacles stemming from urbanization that threaten their food system. Current levels of urbanization have already caused systemic disruptions, and the future likely holds increases in development, with both policy and environmental implications. This quotation from a community member of QFN echoes the feelings of many other first nations across Canada: “Our diets have changed, we have become more reliant on the westernized food – we've created this imbalance for a lot of the species that are out there.” This thesis will identify barriers to food sovereignty in QFN by illuminating current efforts of programs designed to improve their food system. The results will also highlight external factors that may prevent the small community from harvesting and cultivating traditional food, creating disruptions to community members’ intergenerational food ways. This thesis is based on eight semi-structured interviews conducted with community members and administrative staff of QFN. The interviewees specified that barriers to food security which will lead to sovereignty are environmental and systemic, including: financial constraints, division, racism, climate change, and reliance on western food. All these barriers inhibit traditional food access and inter-generational knowledge transfer within the QFN community. Although the QFN has known about these barriers for years, the members of the community face many challenges in dismantling them. This community is on a path to igniting and restoring cultural elements, which have been lost due to environmental and systemic barriers.