Thinking About Indigenous Food Security and Research During COVID-19

By Taylor Wilson, 2nd year MDP student

In my previous blogpost regarding my field placement, I shared that I chose to re-adjust my placement plan and do something different. Some other students did the same as I did while others chose to continue their plans while adjusting to COVID-19 rules. Like I had previously mentioned I had initially planned to work in my home community of Fisher River Cree Nation. I was going to create a food guide. This guide was to map our food system and provide information on how to eat nutritionally and traditionally in ways that are accessible, affordable, and easy. I had hoped it could be a guide to revitalizing Fisher River’s unique food culture as they are a Cree community living amongst a sea of Anishinaabe communities. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Corn growing m my yard in Fisher River

There were several reasons why I chose to not do my initial plan during the pandemic. One of the larger ones was that my community chose to close its borders to nearly everyone except for on-reserve members, which I found to be a valid choice. The other major reason I chose not to do my placement there during the pandemic was because of the topic. I was looking at food sovereignty and food security and I didn’t think it was fair or right that I, even as a community member, go to Fisher River during a time of uncertainty and do research about the food system.

If there is anything that MDP has taught me over my two years in the program, it’s the importance of doing research the right way. Fisher River is fortunate enough to be a thriving Indigenous community with capable and amazing community members, but it doesn’t exempt them from the myriad of issues surrounding Indigenous communities and the struggle for food sovereignty and security. Who was I to come into the community, someone who hadn’t lived on-reserve for nearly 10 years, and begin to question the food system during a time like this? Or ask questions about how people access and afford their food during what could arguably be called an economic crisis? Where access to affordable foods might be difficult. Not only that, commercial fishing, a huge source of income and food in the community, was halted across Manitoba. As soon as I realized these things, I called it off. I spoke with Shailesh and voiced my concerns, and thankfully (as much as we both would like to do this project), he agreed that this was not the right time.

Doing research on/in/with Indigenous communities during times like these means that as a researcher, even an Indigenous one, we need to think about the consequences, impacts, and realities of what our research does. Honestly, even without the pandemic, we need to consider these things. Even with our community partners being open, willing, and excited to work on this project, we need to understand and consider the impacts any research we do. I encourage other researchers, students, organizations who want to do research with Indigenous communities to think about what this pandemic is doing to Indigenous communities, and consider “is this the right time to be doing research”?

I look forward to working on this project in the future and being back home on the land. For now, I will continue to do work and learn about what research is and needs to be.

Yours, Taylor 

My yard in Fisher River

Business planning amidst a global pandemic

By Henok Alemneh, 2nd year MDP student

One of my major tasks during my field placement with the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation was writing a business plan for an Indigenous owned and controlled tourism facility and experience in the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site (PA). The time we are in is probably not the best time to start a tourism business. It is rather a time when many of those who are already in it are being severely impacted by the COVID-19 induced health and economic crisis. Some funding organizations have also shifted their focus towards recovery and stimulus grant funding for existing businesses affected by the crisis. However, I found it to be a good time to plan for a potential establishment of a business that could possibly be in a better position to cope in case of a future crisis like the one we are in. Planning amidst this pandemic allowed me to practically see some of the business risks that come with it. There is a lot that a potential business can learn from the way those who are already being impacted are dealing with the crisis. Communities such as the Pimachiowin Aki First Nations, who are home to a World Heritage Site with immense cultural and natural tourism potentials, can think of various innovative and strategic ways to minimize impacts due to similar potential challenges in the future.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indigenous tourism sector in Canada was showing enhanced growth and the sector also had a significant economic footprint in Manitoba. The trend showed a promising future then, but nowadays the industry is pretty much at a standstill. Tourism by its nature is largely dependent on travel from one place to another and on the people-to-people and people-to-environment interactions involved with it. Such characteristic of the industry has placed it among the most impacted by COVID-19. International and local travel have largely been restricted for months and people have been asked and, in some cases, required to stay away from each other. Although some places are relaxing restrictions recently, we are also seeing some places rolling back restrictions due to the recent spike in infections. Generally, it is not clearly known when things could fully go back to normal as that may depend on the availability of vaccine and or therapeutics.

Regardless of uncertainties looming over its future, many of us, based on tourism’s history of bouncing back after crisis, hope that it will eventually recover. But we don’t know when that will happen. The various ways governments, associations and others are trying to support and speed up the recovery also give some hope in addition to the hope for availability of a vaccine. In the business planning project, we anticipated that people would most likely prefer to travel within their region, especially in the early stages of tourism’s recovery and that appears to be the case with places such as Pinawa recently experiencing an influx of Manitoba visitors. Government agencies such as Destination Canada are also encouraging interprovincial domestic travel.

Drive-in tourists would be targeted due to the anticipation that many people may replace their international travel plans with road trips within Canada. It is also expected that going forward many visitors will be more cautious about hygiene and social distancing. Therefore, the proposed business has been planned to operate in accordance with up-to-date public health guidelines. The economic challenges may also make visitors more price sensitive for some time. As many students are not having the opportunity to travel during their school holidays, we may also see a growth in domestic friends and family travelers. The business planning activity has been undertaken with these and related expectations in mind. The bottom line is that the COVID crisis would bring changes in the market. The business planning project thus required planning and preparing to navigate the new changes in the market environment. In order to minimize potential damages from such crisis in the future, the proposed business would put in place crisis planning and management strategies. Product diversification and creative marketing would be some of the focus areas both in the short-term and long-term. Because dependency on tourism may result in a significant impact during a crisis like COVID, it would also be crucial for communities such as PA First Nations to diversify their economies. The proposed business could be launched after COVID-19 is fully subdued, but the lessons obtained during the planning stage should be carried along as another crisis may happen at any time.