Workshop on traditional First Nations foods at Malaspina

Malaspina University-College and the Snuneymuxw First Nations will be co-hosting a workshop on Saturday, April 5, celebrating and discussing traditional First Nations foods while considering the risk of contamination and pollution they face.

“Malaspina is hosting this workshop as a means of supporting First Nations communities on issues of common concern,” said Grant Murray, Canada Research Chair at Malaspina. “We want to engage in the kind of applied, interdisciplinary, environmentally-oriented research that Malaspina excels at and provide an opportunity for Malaspina faculty, staff and students to learn more about these issues and network with those involved in researching them.”

The event will consist of two parts – The first portion will take place at Malaspina between 8am and 5:30pm with presentations on various aspects of traditional foods from the points of view of culture, society, health and from a toxicological perspective. The second part of the event will take place at the Snuneymuxw Community Kitchen, where a traditional feast will be served along with drumming, dancing and singing.

“This event provides a venue for the balanced consideration of some very timely, complex and extremely important issues,” said Murray.

The title of the day long workshop is ‘Traditional seafoods of Vancouver Island First Nations: balancing health benefits with pollution risks.’ The goal for the day is to get feedback on current research and to share any new information on the topic with the community.

This workshop is part of a one-year project being undertaken by several groups and is funded by Health Canada's National First Nations Environmental Contaminants Program.

The project is entitled “Environmental contaminants in the marine foods of coastal First Nations in British Columbia: a community-oriented risk evaluation.”

This study is generating a basis for community outreach and capacity building on questions of contaminant risks and traditional foods through the completion of 300 dietary surveys at five Vancouver Island First Nations communities and the sampling of four traditional seafood items (crabs, clams, sockeye salmon and harbour seals) from these communities for contaminant analysis (PCBs, PBDEs, dioxins, furans and metals).

The program proposes in its second year to solidify the interpretation of results, expand consultations with nutritionists and risk assessors, design and implement an outreach program and carry out a two-tiered series of workshops. The program is on track to produce scientific publications on the importance of traditional foods to Vancouver First Nations communities, and on contaminant levels in some of these items.

For more information on the workshop, please contact Gary Ardron @ shelter@island.net