About us
Wild game along with the wide variety of edible plant life meant that Aboriginal people were generally well nourished. Traditionally, people were always hunter-gatherers. The daily diet of Indigenous people varies depending on the type of plants and animals available on land and in the sea around them at certain seasons of the year. Because of the need to search food in places where it is not easily accessible, Indigenous communities have extensive knowledge of plants, roots, animals, the earth and the influence of weather on the conditions for rising the food. Certain plants were particularly valued for their healing value and spiritual benefits. It is also important to mention that every single part of the animal is eaten or used to make clothing or shelter.
Throughout their existence, Canada's indigenous communities have used their knowledge about the environment and traditional food practices to survive and maintain their health using their land and seas. Traditional food usage is still the main ideology for their health, lifestyle, and spiritual well-being. Traditional indigenous food, also called wildly raised food, mostly consisted of animals and plants that were collected from their natural habitat.
The same traditions and the harvesting process also have a beneficial effect on physical fitness, overall state of health, strong cultural identity and values, as well as their knowledge of the land, environment and lifestyle. In the traditional eating habits of indigenous peoples, a delicate balance between all living beings in our common, natural environment should be found.
“All plants should be respected. Keeping your body and soul together means using the medicines and the foods we eat – our daily medicines that keep our whole being well – it’s like the veins in our bodies are like the rivers that flow through the Earth – we need to take care of both the earth and our bodies.”.
N. Rose Point, Musqueam
Since the earliest arrival of Europeans, commercial foods such as flour, refined sugar, oatmeal, lard, and coffee have been introduced to indigenous peoples. These foods were alien to their digestive system, as they are to every human being by nature. After all, people who eat only clean, traditional, healthy food are much healthier and happier along their life journey. That’s why it is so important to promote the natural eating habits among our new generation.
Our children and grandchildren set a new piece of love and energy into us and promise a continuation of the life, seven generations or more until the end of centuries. As we honor all phases of our lives, so we must honor the stages of learning for those who will continue to nurture the life of tomorrow. This is one of the main parts of the responsibility we have to the Turtle island, so that she can live well and in good health, is to pass on the knowledge of our ancestors to our children and grandchildren about our way of being and knowing.
This teaching is a natural part of who we are as parents, grandparents, and brothers and sisters. We all have gifts within ourselves that we should bring to others, to those we love, to other members of our community, along with all the humanity. Think about your special gifts and share them, because knowledge should spread and benefit humanity, and lead to peace of mind and spirit.
By following a diet of traditional foods, people receive irreplaceable health and well-being benefits. it is also important to understand that the concept of health and well-being implies several ways including social, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of human life.
Be persistent in exercising your right to hunt, fish, and harvest on your territory. Ask old people and traditional and environmental knowledge holders how to do this correctly. It will be good for the state of mind and body along with the spirit inside you and will contribute to a right and happy future.
