One Health Seminar Series: Indigenous food sovereignty and the stewardship of “berried” landscapes

Dr. Faisal Moola, Associate Professor and Master of Conservation Leadership Coordinator, in the Department of Geography, Environment & Geomatics at the University of Guelph, will speak about Indigenous food sovereignty and the stewardship of “berried” landscapes.

Over 200 different plant species native to Canada produce small, fleshy wild fruits. Although commonly described as wild berries, these fruit-producing plants belong to a diversity of botanical classes, including drupes (e.g., cherries, elderberries), pomes (e.g., saskatoon berries), aggregate fruits (e.g., raspberries, strawberries) and true wild berries (e.g., blueberries and cranberries). All types of berries have been an important part of the traditional diet of Indigenous Peoples, especially in northern forest regions, where several varieties including blueberries, partridge berries, cranberries, and other berry-producing plants, grow well in the acidic and nutrient-poor soils. Berries have immense material, social, psychological significance including subsistence and medicinal value to Indigenous Peoples in Canada and globally. Being dense in nutrients not regularly available, such as vitamin C and carbohydrates, berries remain a staple of many Indigenous People’s diets. They are eaten both fresh and dried as well as processed into a variety of foodstuffs, including prepared as juice, tea, and other beverages, made into preserves and fruit leathers or added whole to soups, stews, bannock, muffins and other baking and mixed with fat, blubber or fish to make “Inuit ice cream”. This presentation will review the importance of wild berries to the food sovereignty of Indigenous People in Canada and globally, the threats to their ecological and cultural integrity from climate change and extractivist capitalist resource development and how Indigenous Peoples are advancing their own forms of conservation governance for the stewardship of this important cultural keystone food species.

Registration encouraged.