An Acknowledgment of the Yukon Hospitals’ Traditional Foods Program

This Spoken Letter is a response to the significance of traditional foods in Indigenous cultures. The significance of food sovereignty in healing and reconciliation. I was delighted to come across the Yukon Hospitals, Traditional Food Programs, and pleased to offer my thanks for their commitment to healing, reconciliation, and Indigenous resurgence through food sovereignty, culture, and person-centred care. In my spoken word, I felt it was necessary to set the table, or, give context to the importance of food as culture and well-being to fully understand the impacts of the hospital’s initiative.

Sky woman’s story, her handful of seeds and the animals who were intrinsically connected to the well-being of all, helped me frame the connection of land and knowledge through plant and animal life. I also felt it necessary to pay my respects to the impacts of colonization and the denial of traditional foods to Indigenous people.

The Traditional Foods Program in the Yukon Hospital is an act of resurgence, fostering food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is food upholding its right to its own culture and the fundamental right of people to define their own food system. Food is medicine, it brings about healing, connection, teachings, traditions, identity, the strength of knowing who one is and where they come from.

The Traditional Foods Program is a pathway to reconciliation it offers a sense of Indigenous history and a sense of Indigenous identity running parallel to a medical system of colonial structures in a mutually respectful manner. The program examples society embracing, creating space for, and upholding Indigenous well-being. The Yukon Hospitals are revitalizing respectful relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures.

My music selection is that of Rosary Spence who is from the Cree community of Fort Albany First Nation, off the coast of James Bay. Her music is contemporary in that she weaves traditional sound with modern technology. The third song features Cris Derksen a two-spirited Cree cellist who blends traditional and classical music. This music speaks to the resurgence of Indigenous culture. The images used speak for themselves. -K.K