The Opportunities and Values of Procuring and Preserving Food within Co-existing Indigenous and Local Food Systems: Insights from Canada’s West Coast

Before the last century, societies around the globe, including Indigenous Peoples and early settlers to Canada’s west coast, relied on local procurement and preservation of seasonal food to support their food security and food sovereignty. In some instances, Indigenous Peoples and settlers shared and adopted each other’s food provisioning and preservation practices and associated values. Such cross-cultural knowledge exchanges provided wide-ranging food provisioning options for those living in the region. In this paper, we conceptualize such exchanges and varieties of provisioning options as part of Indigenous and local food systems that have been co-created through mutual interdependence, support, and food-related values. Using data from interviews and document analysis, we show that current residents of the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Region have maintained traditional food procurement and preservation techniques, although with some new methods that have emerged in response to new technologies, innovation, and need. Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents who share food and exchange food provisioning practices simultaneously support their food needs, wellbeing, and cultural maintenance. In contrast to research that examines and conceptualizes local food systems and Indigenous food systems separately, this paper highlights the existence of an interrelated Indigenous and local food system, characterized by historical and contemporary shared food provisioning practices and cross-cultural food knowledge exchanges on Canada’s west coast. The advantage of the joint conceptualization lies in acknowledging how food systems can and do evolve to co-exist over time, and how they create opportunities for people living in remote, sometimes marginalized communities to strengthen food security and food sovereignty through shared food provisioning practices that resonate with their values.