Response to the article “A national plan to end food insecurity in Canada is within reach”
My colleague Jasmine Ramze Rezaee rightly highlights the importance of food insecurity in Canada as a policy failure. I work closely with the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit as the Indigenous network manager at Community Food Centres Canada.
As it is National Indigenous History Month, I want to build on her call for a national plan by emphasizing the distinct realities in northern Indigenous communities.
At our gathering in Iqaluit last September, Indigenous leaders from across the country reaffirmed that food sovereignty, not just food security, is essential. In Nunavut, where over half of households are food insecure, income support is critical but insufficient.
We need policies that recognize the right to access traditional food sources, support community harvesting, and enable intergenerational knowledge sharing. Across the country, our people are not only trying to eat. We are reclaiming and practicing the resurgence of our traditional ways.
Food sovereignty is about autonomy, cultural continuity, and the right to define our food systems on our own terms, which are distinct for each of our communities.
The cost of groceries is only one part of the story. Mining, climate change, and imposed regulations continue to erode Indigenous communities’ ability to live off the land. The solutions must be Indigenous-led and rooted in land-based practices and governance. What we need is for governments to stop creating barriers and start respecting and co-creating with us on the path forward.