IQALUIT
A crowd of delegates met in Iqaluit last week hungry to discuss one thing: food availability and affordability in the territory.
Transferring Traditional Skills to Future Generations was a panel discussion at the Nunavut Food Security Symposium, in Iqaluit Jan. 22. Panelists were Eugene Kabliutok, left, Eenoapik Sageatook, David Joanasie and moderator Helen Larocque, director of beneficiary services for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. - photo courtesy of GN
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In Canada, Nunavut remains a statistical outlier with as many as 70 per cent of households deemed to be "food insecure."
However, of the more than 100 people from different organizations invited to the table for the Nunavut Food Security Symposium, Jan. 21 to 24, media were allowed to attend only post-event press conferences and not the actual expert panel discussions.
"It's important for the delegates and elected members that were present to have freedom to express whatever they want to say and that's why it was dedicated to invited guests only," said Premier Eva Aariak in answer to why media were disallowed from many events of the symposium.
During opening remarks of the symposium's first day, territorial nutritionist Jennifer Wakegijig, with the Department of Health and Social Services, welcomed a room full of delegates, politicians, educators, hunters, grocers and regulatory officials.
"To strive for food security is complex and there's no black-and-white solution," she said.
As Nunavut works against its geographic isolation and high cost of food from the south, perhaps the most prominent topic at the symposium was country food, which Wakegijig called ounce-for-ounce the most nutrition-concentrated and best food in Nunavut.
"A traditional diet is a wonderfully nutritious diet," she said.
But decreasing access to country food along with instances of environmental contamination and a loss of traditional knowledge to prepare it gave the symposium's theme "A Call to Action" an air of urgency.
"We have to take action," said Cathy Towtongie, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., who, along with the GN, leads the Nunavut Food Security Coalition. She said some of the topics discussed were sharing country food through informal networks, improving language skills between youth and elders and getting country food into food banks that currently cannot use it because they're not legally protected.
"We discussed mechanisms for how these would come into existence," said Towtongie. "We have a common vision in ensuring that food security in our communities is stabilized."
Selling country food in grocery stores and markets has also had questionable success in improving food security in Nunavut. Willie Hyndman, with Project Nunavut – which organizes Iqaluit's monthly country food market – was a panelist in the discussion on creating commercial access to sustainable country food as exists in Greenland.
"There's sort of an ongoing balance in Nunavut. People really want to maintain their sharing culture and that social fabric, but at the same time we recognize it costs a lot of money to go out hunting," he said. "There needs to be a way for hunters to earn a living."
"The (country food) market is one way hunters can access the cash economy but it's not necessarily the only way," he said, explaining Nunavut should look to raise revenue internally with ideas such as a possible "hunter sales tax" on top of the five per cent GST so it can support hunters on an ongoing basis.
Other ideas and possibilities that came out of the symposium involved redirecting current exports such as turbot to local markets, getting country food inspected and available in grocery stores at affordable prices, improving community infrastructure so hunters can store, prepare, share and sell their harvests, exploring the viability of greenhouses and local food production and having breakfast programs for children in all communities.
"There are a lot of components to food security in the North," said Eric Joamie who runs Feeding My Family, a website movement concerning the disturbingly high cost of food in the North. He called the symposium "uplifting" and said food security isn't only about food but involves housing, education and financial literacy. "The issues are combined together."
The symposium was broken down into six main categories: market food access; country food access; life skills and financial literacy; programs and community initiatives; policies and legislation; and local food production. Gaining access to healthy food is one thing, but getting Nunavummiut to kick poor diets is challenge unto its own, said Wakegijig.
"Human beings are hardwired to be drawn to salty foods and sweet foods that are not of nutritional value," she said.
