In Northern British Columbia, a group of indigenous Canadians have started a program to work towards food security on reserves and isolated communities where produce prices are inflated.
The group led by 'CÚAGILÁKV (Jess Housty) known as the Qqs (Eyes) Project began teaching communities to grow food in 2017, after the incredible success of the pilot program the Qqs Project is on track to teach over 100 households how to grow and store their own food during 2020.
Food insecurity has been a major issue facing indigenous communities in Canada due to the removal of land and use of reservations. The land restriction made it nearly impossible to make a commercial farm or ranch on indigenous land. The land that was originally cultivated for food was largely misrepresented in surveying and taken, shrinking the territory further. Over the past 200 years this treatment accompanied by many other injustices caused over one third of indigenous homes on reserves to be food insecure.
The work done by the Qqs Project has led to one third of the communities involved taking part in growing their own food with even more communities joining annually. Bringing indigenous growing techniques back to the land has helped to start shrinking the food disparity in remote British Columbia, there is still much more that can be done to support indigenous people in Canada. Using traditional growing to improve the lives of indigenous communities shows a path where heritage and growth are one in the same.