Towards a transdisciplinary characterisation of the Indigenous food systems of Inuit Nunangat and Eeyou Istchee

Indigenous foodways are unique and contemporary economies that people rely on to feed themselves that have existed since time immemorial. These food systems are social-ecological phenomena situated at the intersection of economy and environment, food and wildlife, biodiversity and well-being, and Indigenous culture and identity. Harvesting wildlife for food is a constitutionally protected right of Indigenous Peoples within Canada. Indigenous food systems are a key contributor to the food security, nutrient intake, and the social economy in Inuit Nunangat and Eeyou Istchee. Chapter 2 combines harvest data reported in support of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) and food recall information from independent health surveys in the Cree region of Eeyou Istchee and the Inuit region of Nunavik to characterize the social-ecological and biocultural foundations of local Indigenous food systems across two regions and two time periods. Multivariate redundancy analysis of local food use in relation to region and survey reveals distinct regional use patterns that have remained consistent over two surveys spanning a 30-year period of accelerating socio-ecological change. Limited access and availability of healthy country and store-bought food have led to high rates of food insecurity across northern Canada, especially in Nunavut, where food insecurity affects 50 to 80% of households, which is ten times higher than the Canadian average. Because food is a fundamental need that must be replaced and cannot be exchanged, in Chapter 3, I adopt a replacement value approach, estimating what it would cost to purchase enough store-bought food to replace the protein and energy offered by reported country food harvest in Nunavut. This methodology of valuing the nutritional content of local country food harvests relative to the local cost of store-bought nutrients arrives at a $140-200 million replacement value estimate, eclipsing both the $3.5 million reported for “hunting, fishing, and trapping” activities by the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics and the Government of Nunavut’s estimated replacement value of $35 million for the country food economy. Chapter 4 applies approaches developed in the previous two chapters to harvest and food recall data from Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik to assess the numeric, value, and nutritional gaps between guaranteed levels of harvest established in the 1970’s and reported food use in the 2000’s. Estimated total use declined by nearly 50% in both regions between the 1970’s and the 2000’s. Given substantial population growth in both regions during the same period, this reduction in total use translates to a 85% decrease in reported per capita use in Nunavik and a 74% decrease in reported per capita use in Eeyou Istchee. I estimate a $20 million annual value gap between guaranteed levels of harvest established in the 1970’s and food use reported in the 2000’s. I also estimate that reported use was sufficient to satisfy 100% of the population’s protein requirements in the 1970’s but in the 2000’s provided for only 51% of recommended dietary allowances in Nunavik and 40% in Eeyou Istchee. By combining publicly available data on harvest, community population/demographics, food consumption, food prices, income, and nutritional content, this thesis offers improved methodologies for describing community and regional differences in use, based on ecological niche metrics, and for estimating the value of local foods, based on a local cost of nutrient replacement. Thesis results also emphasize that the Indigenous food systems of Inuit Nunangat and Eeyou Istchee remain a high value economy and that regional use niches remain distinct over time, despite rapid socio-ecological change

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