AICBR, in collaboration with partners across Canada, have compiled food systems and climate change assets into two online, mapping inventories.
Youth Toolkit helps First Nations Communities assess Climate Change Opportunities and Priorities
As part of the Yukon Indigenous Community Climate Change Champions (YIC4) project, a youth toolkit was developed to outline steps for conducting a community-based assessment of climate change opportunities and priorities in First Nations communities.
Bringing Together Indigenous Youth for Climate Change Preparedness in the North
AICBR is gearing up to host the next iteration of our youth training as part of the Yukon Indigenous Community Climate Change Champions (YIC4) Project. This training will welcome 24 First Nations youth (aged 16-30yrs) from communities across the territory to Whitehorse, January 21st-24th, 2019. Elders, scientists and experts from across Canada will guide youth in exploring the climate change crisis from both Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing and how we, as northern communities can adapt.
Two Yukon First Nations Initiatives featured at the Montreal Science Centre Exhibit: Indigenous Ingenuity
The Montreal Science Centre has recently wrapped up their exhibit on Indigenous Ingenuity, which featured two Yukon First Nations initiatives. The Centre received over 100,000 visitors over the course of the exhibit and was such a success that it has been renewed for another feature between October 2018-March 2019. Earlier last year, AICBR teamed up with McGill University
Youth Climate Change Champions Training a Success
November 2017, 29 Indigenous youth from Yukon, Northern BC, Northwest Territories, and Nunatsiavut and some Yukon Renewable Resources Council members came together in Whitehorse for a four-day training on climate change. This training is part of a two-year initiative training community climate change champions.
Northern Indigenous Youth Come Together to Learn about Climate Change, its Effects, its Challenges and its Solutions
What’s Your Recipe for a Better Food System? Upcoming Community Engagement Events in Whitehorse seek to raise Yukoners’ voices on National Food Policy
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18th, 2017
Whitehorse, YT – Food matters. Four million Canadians struggle to put enough healthy, culturally appropriate, safe, affordable food on their tables; food insecurity in Canada’s North is an increasingly urgent issue with far reaching public health, economic and social impacts. In Yukon, 17% of residents are food insecure. At the federal level, solutions to address this problem have been patchwork and no cohesive strategy that governs our food from “farm to fork” exists. Hope is on the horizon however, with the federal government tasking the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada (AAFC) to work in collaboration with others to develop a Food Policy for Canada that “promotes healthy living and safe food by putting more healthy, high-quality food, produced by Canadian ranchers and farmers, on the tables of families across the country” [Prime Minister Mandate Letter to Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, 2015].
Policy is literally in everything we do. According to Sherri Torjman from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, “we eat, drink and breathe public policy” because it affects everything from the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.
What food policy can do for everyday Canadians is that it sets out a plan of action, both in the short- and long-term, for how we govern our food system and how we ensure Canadians are healthy and safe, how we protect our environment for future generations and how we promote our goals for prosperity. We all need to eat, so we all have something important to say when it comes to shaping our national food policy.
The Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research (AICBR) and the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC) are working with Food Secure Canada, with the support of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Lush Canada, and Ice Wireless to put on two events that will bring together the public to talk about Yukon food security and how it fits into the national policy being developed. Thursday, July 20th from 3:00 - 8:00 pm there will be a booth at the Fireweed Market where the public can come to hear more on the topic of national food policy, fill out the government’s online survey, learn about what is happening in Yukon, and share their views on food. Then, Monday, July 31st, from 5:30 – 8:00 pm at The Old Fire Hall, a free, public meal and facilitated discussion will be co-hosted to gather further input on Yukoners’ needs and priorities for food security.
What we want to know is, “What are the shared values and priorities of the Yukon” and “What do Yukoners want to tell the federal government about our food system in the North?” There is a short window of time that the government is undertaking consultations, and it is important to hear from Yukoners so that we can raise up Northern values, ideas and needs as part of this process. We encourage a diverse set of voices to the table – community members with lived experiences of food insecurity, sustainable agriculture and fisheries leaders, Indigenous community members, local food business owners, community food programmers, government officials, and health professionals, among others – to talk about how we can build a healthier, more just, sustainable, and economically viable food system for all Canadians.
Please join AICBR and YAPC at our booth at the Fireweed Market, Thursday, July 20th from 3:00 -8:00 pm and for a free public meal July 31st, from 5:30 – 8:00 pm (The Old Fire Hall). Stay tuned to more details by visiting, www.aicbr.ca or yapc.ca.
Contacts:
Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research
(867) 668-3393
info@aicbr.ca (Molly or Katelyn)
OR
Yukon Anti Poverty Coalition
(867) 334-9317
yapcfood@gmail.com (Renée); yukonantipovertycoalition@gmail.com (Kristina)
Links and More Resources:
Fill out the Government of Canada's online survey: https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/food-policy.html
Sign on to support Food Secure Canada's 5 Big Ideas: https://foodsecurecanada.org/five-big-ideas
Learn more about Yukon Food Security:
INTRODUCING Release of New Film in Partnership with Kluane First Nation: Remembering Our Past Nourishing Our Future
In partnership with Kluane First Nation (KFN) we are pleased to announce the recent release of KFN's Remembering Our Past Nourishing Our Future DVD which was produced in collaboration with AICBR as part the Nourishing Our Future project. We have been working with KFN over the past 3 years and this documentary is the culmination of a tremendous amount of great work that the community has done to reclaim their culture, traditions, food security, and future wellbeing.
Northern and Indigenous Food Security a Central Issue at Food Secure Canada's 9th National Assembly: October 13 – 16th, 2016
Norma Kassi Receives Food Secure Canada's Cathleen Kneen Award for her Dedication to Building a More Just and Sustainable Food System
Delegates from Across the Territory Come Together to Create a Vision for a Food Secure Yukon
Yukoners Come Together to Discuss Food Security
Introducing our Healthy Living Inventory – Mapping Healthy Eating and Active Living Programs in Yukon and NWT
Aboriginal Youth secure their Traditional Foods in Partnership with University of Waterloo
Youth researchers, Lenita Alatini, Jared Dulac (Kluane First Nation's Youth Councillor), and Nadaya Johnson, are hard at work on the analysis
This week youth from Kluane First Nation are in Waterloo testing fish samples to determine contaminant levels and nutrient values of fish from Kluane Lake as part of joint food security project with Kluane First Nation, the Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research and University of Waterloo. The project, titled, “Nourishing Our Future: Building on Kluane First Nations Community Food Strategy & Youth Engagement in traditions related to Fisheries and Fish Health in Kluane Lake”, helps to answer questions raised within the Kluane First Nation community and provides a better understanding of local perceptions about nutrients and contaminant levels in traditional food sources. It builds on community-based, participatory research and Indigenous knowledge approaches and combines scientific and traditional knowledge for a better understanding of food security issues in the region and how to secure sustainable food sources for future generations.
Preliminary analyses show mercury levels to be very low in Lake Trout and Whitefish of Kluane Lake. This is good news amidst the rising health concerns over mercury in fish in many northern communities.
KFN youth, Nadaya Johnson (lower left) and Lenita Alatini (lower right) are all smiles at the University of Waterloo where they are testing the health of trout and whitefish, among other types from Kluane Lake
This project has been generously funded through the Government of Canada's Northern Contaminants Program, Yukon Fish & Wildlife Enhancement Fund and Dän Keyi Renewable Resources Council.
"Norma's Story" wins best Canadian short at Planet in Focus
"Tread Lightly" was one of the messages of the National Film Board's new Canadian short entitled "Norma's Story". AICBR's Norma Kassi tells her story of growing up in Old Crow and the way that climate change has affected the land and the people. "Norma's Story" won best Canadian short at Planet in Focus...
Panel Discussion: Engaging First Nation communities in scientific research: lessons for successful and meaningful collaboration
Inaugural Session of the Science Communication Winter 2016 Lunch and Learn Series This winter, the Climate Change Secretariat and the Government of Yukon's Science Community of Practice (SCOPe) has organized a series of professional development sessions on science communication. This series includes six...