Mapping the White Earth Foodshed

By Kaitlyn Duthie-Kannikkatt, 1st year MDP student

“What if we woke up tomorrow morning and the entire global food system had collapsed? How well would we be able to feed ourselves? Would our people be able to eat?”

Foodshed map

With this question, my mentor Bob opened up the foodshed mapping network meeting, hosted in the last week of my MDP field placement with the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Northern Minnesota. Along with Bob, I had been working to assemble this meeting by creating promotional materials and doing some background research on foodshed mapping processes in other parts of the country.

Our foodshed consists of everything from the land in which our food is grown to the facilities that store it, from the roads and rails on which our food travels, to the grocery stores in which we purchase it. It is all the pieces of our food system working together to shape the way we eat.

Kaitlyn with freshly picked raspberries

Foodshed mapping is a process that begins with community members physically sticking pins on a map and collaboratively taking stock of the resources they have and the resources they need to be able to improve access to food on the reservation. Through physically and conceptually mapping their food system, WELRP hopes that the community as a whole can begin to work towards assembling and implementing a plan to achieve tribal food sovereignty.

Some of the questions we thought about included:

•          Are there farmers markets, or farms that sell direct to customers?

•          Are there food storage facilities?

•          Are there community gardens, or fruit trees in public places?

•          Where are the schools with farm to school programs?

•          Do we know of any root cellars? How about canning and preserving equipment?

•          Where are the key wild foods places? Is it appropriate to map these out?

•          What land could become a local food production center?

•          What kinds of programs and connections currently exist to give people the tools to assert food sovereignty?

After presenting some of what I had learned about foodshed mapping and then furiously taking notes throughout the meeting on the rich conversations had among those who attended, I was able to reflect on what a gift it is to have been part of this process at such a critical juncture. I have been really inspired over my time at WELRP at how much is being done to revive traditional knowledge in this community, especially in the way of growing and harvesting food. Seeds are coming back, youth are engaged in gardening, berry camps and rice camps are bringing all generations together to celebrate wild foods…and this process of foodshed mapping is just one more step in what has been a generations-long commitment to community resilience within the White Earth Nation. I am so grateful for the opportunity to bear witness to that effort and to support it in some small way.

Chi-miigwech to everyone at the White Earth Land Recovery Project! Keep fighting the good fight!

Kaitlyn and her mentor Bob Shimek

Mino bimaadziyaang: We are living well!

By Kaitlyn Duthie-Kannikkatt, 1st year MDP student

 

What do you think about when you think of good food? Is it a favourite dish your grandma used to make? A fish caught fresh out of the lake and fried up over a cook fire? Maybe it’s as simple as a loaf of bread baked fresh and served with a melting pat of butter?

Food means many different things to people, but one thing that almost always rings true about good food is its link to culture. The foods that were important to us growing up, or that remind us of home, or that connect us with our ancestors in some way are the foods that make us feel most satisfied. They become more than just something we put in our bellies – they are nourishment for the soul, and they help sustain traditions and cultural practices that are critical to the survival of a people.

More often that not, those foods are the foods that keep us feeling healthy as well. For the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Northern Minnesota where I’m currently doing my placement, growing healthy community is closely linked to building sustainable food systems rooted in Anishinaabe culture and the traditions of this land.

 

Photo of School Mural from welrp.org

WELRP was formed some 25 years ago with a mission to facilitate the recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation while preserving and restoring traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and strengthening our spiritual and cultural heritage (www.welrp.org).

It’s done a lot of interesting work over the years to make this happen. It began Native Harvest – a native foods producer that sells locally grown and processed wild rice, maple syrup, corn, crafts, and a whole slew of other products made either in house or by local White Earth harvesters.  It started an Anishinaabe Seed Library to revive and protect native seeds and empower community members with the skills to grow them. It started the first Tribal Farm-to-School program, connecting schools on the reservation with local farmers to create healthier breakfast and lunch menus and to educate youth about the foods that are native to their home. The list could go on, and WELRP is an inspiring example of a community-rooted organization doing innovative work to assert tribal food sovereignty.

While I’m here, I’m working on developing a reworked USDA food pyramid that can be more relevant to the health and cultural context of the Anishinaabe on the White Earth Reservation and used as a tool for home and school menu planning. I’m also supporting a foodshed mapping project that is seeking to assess the current food growing, processing, and purchasing capacity of the reservation and reimagine land use policies for a more food sovereign community.

Kaitlyn

In between office hours, I’m serving hominy-bacon and three sisters soup at the White Earth Pow Wow, making bannock for a funders meeting, learning about edible bugs and Russian fish soup at the Wild Food Summit, planting fruit trees at the tribal college, and getting my hands dirty in my own garden that I’ve planted.

The diversity of the work and the sheer number of things going on is keeping me busy, and I couldn’t ask for a better placement. In just six weeks, I feel like I’ve learned so much – about the work of WELRP, about the White Earth community, and about living well. I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks have in store!