Watery Abundance: Renewing Lifeways Through Cultural Foodscapes in Arctic Canada

A full report of Food Insecurity in the Arctic, Watery abundance: building collective action through food can be found here.

Our project takes the position of decolonizing current food infrastructures in the Canadian arctic through collaborating with the Gwich’in Tribal Council in the northwest territories of Canada, reimagining renewed foodways that celebrate Indigeous food culture and reciprocal ways of living. 
The research focuses on the evolution of food geography and food deserts in arctic built environments and communities. We have been looking at the correlative relationship between food scarcity and the loss of animal habitats due to the Dempster Highway in relation to changes in the biogeography of the existing ecosystem. Climate change increases the risk of fresh food insecurity and exacerbates the loss of permafrost and lichen, a main food source for Caribou populations. Indigenous tribes in the Northwest Territories have a commensalistic relationship with Caribou populations, whose herd size and location depend on the fragile ecosystem of the evanescent Arctic and are critical to the preservation of the permafrost. This situation is also closely tied to food insecurity among Gwich’in communities across Arctic Canada, which have been associated with disturbed eating patterns, reduced diet quality, and increased susceptibility to chronic and infectious diseases after the introduction of a diet high in processed foods. Starting in the 18th century, commercial hunting depleted the wildlife populations that many depended on for food. Our project aimed to produce material for publication and innovative data visualization, such as maps and multimedia drawings. 
This project investigates indigenous Gwich’in foodways currently disrupted by colonial infrastructures under increasing climatic uncertainties in the Canadian arctic, through the lens of the Makenzie Bay River as our site. The study area is in the First Nations Gwich’in town of Fort McPherson (Northwest Territories, Canada), where the sinking of the Dempster Highway is fragmenting cultural relationships to the land and traditional food systems. We hope that our research begins to fill a gap in the landscape discipline on the effects of colonial infrastructure on Arctic traditional foodways, expanding the role of landscape architects as activists for place-based food security and Indigenous studies in a TEK perspective. Ultimately, this design project seeks to raise awareness for cultural preservation through food rituals, the impact of climate change on traditional ways of life, and seek new modalities for coexisting and living, in shifting times. 

Researchers: Diana Guo +  Tian Wei