Scianew Feast June 5th, 2010

It was a glorious day in Scianew First Nation for the 2nd Annual Feasting For Change Event. The table was set highlighting the many knowledgable and skilled community members who make this beautiful community their home.

Evelyn and Isabelle are passionate community leaders who wanted to provide the youth with a day to connect and see the knowledge and experience that exists in their community.

The day was a casual with tables and interactive demonstrations. Below are some pictures highlighting the day.

Some of the Elders supporting the day and sharing with the youth. Thank you Lee, Burt and Anna.

Thanks to Evelyn and Henry we had some samples of some delicious foods. Roe, Crabs, Mussels and Clams. Delicious!

Tina and Isabelle sharing their new creation the COB Oven. Everyone got to make their own homemade pizza.

Having a snack!

The youth looking at all the history of their community. Evelyn brought archive pictures, many documents and history of the community. The youth were so interested in how the community used to look and how their ancestors used to use and access the land. By Canoe! Maps also showed the territorial lines along with modern day maps.

Earl Claxton Jr and Lewis Williams from Tsawout came out and shared their teachings as well. Lewis took 14 youth on a nature walk and Earl set up a cooking station for all the traditional food.

Darryl Barker making his famous bannock. He shared his baking skills with all of us. It was delicious.

Tina showing the youth how the cob over works and getting ready to cook the personal pizzas.

Narcess sharing his carvings. Amazing work!

Lewis getting ready to take the youth on a plant identification walk. Tina working hard getting the oven hot enough.

Isabelle and Eve sharing their knitting skills.

Many of Henry's Carving and Basket Grass from Jordan River. The many uses of Cedar and Grass used for art and ceremonial masks and Regalia.

Cedar Weaving - preparing the cedar after it has been stripped from the tree.

Henry and Earl getting the fire ready to smoke the food and bake the fish.

Preparing the fire and food.

Henry getting the fish ready.

Youth helping earl with the fire and digging a small pit.

The knitting station.

Some of Scianew history. Thanks to Evelyn for sharing all her great research and archives.

Youth learning more about where they have come from and the history of their home.

The beautiful Cob oven.

The purpose of the day was to have each community member set up an interactive display showcasing their knowledge, skills and abilities. Over 50 Adults, youth and children shared stories, skills and their passions.

The pictures above only capture some of the beautiful people and stories that were shared. We thank everyone for their time, knowledge, experience and resources.

3rd Annual Traditional Foods Conference and the Digital Harvesters 2010

Hello all

It has sure been a busy last few months. Feasting for Change has been on the move and working hard on the foods conference and much more. Here is a bit about the last few months.

In Victoria, BC on April 16 and 17, 2010, members from over 30 Coastal First Nations communities attended the 3rd Annual Conference on the Traditional Foods of Vancouver Island First Nations.

The conference follows two very successful conferences held in Nanaimo. The theme this year was “Celebrating Indigenous Foods in a Changing World: Coastal Conversations among Youth, Elders and Community Members.”

The purpose of the gathering was to bring people together to celebrate the traditional foods and people of Vancouver Island First Nations and to discuss the four pillars of nutrition, healing, safety and community.

Day 1 was be hosted at the First Peoples House at the University of Victoria and over 150 people attended the day that featured speakers, panellists, open discussions and amazing short film-screenings. (See link below for the Digital Harvest videos) The day went into the evening and included a Feast and evening of entertainment. Earl, Lewis, Jen and I presenting our work, digital story and the knowledge basket. It was great.

Day 2 was held out in the Tsawout First Nation at their new community building. Over 300 people came for a day of networking and hands-on activities, demonstrations and displays. There were over 20 booths of people working hard on Indigenous Food Issues. Feasting for Change and VICCIFN were both there at met so many great people. There were some great outdoor activities like removing the hike from a deer, eating sea urchins, traditional pit cook, cooking food in a bentwood box, smoking clams and baking scow bread on the fire.

The food on day 2 was delicious and a huge community event. We feasted on clams chowder, smoked fish soup, crabs, salmon, urchins, prawns, lingcod, delicious berries and baked bread. A huge thank to Snaw-naw-as's Vanessa and Jake Bob for their clams and soup! Rose Jimmy and her crew did an amazing job on the food. Also Arron Sam caught lots of the delicious food. Hych-ka Siem to all the many food helpers, Abe, Kate, Tommy, Joceyln and so many more!

Photos from the 2010 Traditional Foods of Vancouver Island First Nations can now seen at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkiemele/

DIGITAL HARVEST Project
The 2 days before the conference the Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities Indigenous Food Network (VICCIFN) worked on the Digital Harvest Project.
Please see this great story for some insight into this project http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBYNaufoYOo&feature=related

Over the 2 days the Elders and youth created 23 stories.
See the amazing stories at this link. All the stories are on the right hand side of the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaPhloqIUs

Then Feasting for Change was asked to come to Tofino for the International Congress of Ethnobiology 2010. It was an amazing event to meet people all over the world working hard on food issues and enviornment protection. On the Tuesday night was a community networking event and we were able to share our story and Knowledge basket with people all over the world. It was powerful.

Some of the youth in the Digital Harvest Project presented at the conference. The Nuu-chah-nulth youth Damon, Nikki, Mitch and Keenan presented their stories and the work they do on their youth council to over 80 people. The youth were give 2 standing ovians. They rocked.

Now it is time for a season of harvesting, teaching, learning and FEASTING! Hope to see you all!

Feasting for Change

Feasting for Change Event Snitcel March 13th 2009

Hello all Feasting Friends

It was a wonderful day, as the students from UVIC, people of Feasting for Change, the SeaChange staff came together to celebrate the beauty and sacredness of Snitcel. The sun was shining and people were getting busy digging the pit and building a fire. The group of UVIC students and community members were split up into four smaller groups the first one went to a nearby stream to collect more rocks; the second harvested salal branches, with the third picked sword ferns and then the forth collected oceanspray. The rocks, salal branches and sword ferns were for the pit while the oceanspray was used for a clam bake and make baked bread too.
When it was time to put the materials in the pit when the rocks were hot enough to cook with; every one of the volunteers worked amazingly fast. There were seven pairs that were lined up in the order that layers in the pit. The layers were salal, sword fern, then the root vegetables, and apples with clams; then the order was revised sword fern and salal on the top. While all of that was going on the clam bake was taking place down on the beach.

After the pit was closed, I (Lewis) told a legend story about how some of the birds got they songs while we all sat to enjoy some medicine tea that was collected by some of the students. The plants that were harvested were:

-trailing blackberry leaves (Rubus ursinus)
-licorice fern rhizome (Polypodium glycyrrhiza)
-Red Cedar tips (Thuja plicata)
-Yerba buena (Clinopodium douglasii)
-stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)
-lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

We also enjoyed some smoked salmon soup make by Jen, Sue and Doug. It was delicious. The weather was changing a bit so it really warmed us all up.
We then got back to work and split into 2 groups – One group was to learn about the plants in Snitcel and the other was to help remove invasive species in the park. It was amazing to see how much work the groups got done. They were powerful and passionate in removing the invasive species while learning about all the medicines and indigenous plants in the territory.
As the groups came back together they could go down to the water and spend time watching Earl Claxton Jr prepare this Iron wood sticks to bake the clams and bake the oysters by the fire. Earl is such a wealth of knowledge and stories. Thank you.

It was now time to enjoy the bounty of the Pit. As the group got together they opened the pit and we feasted on the root veggies, clams, apples and it was delicious.
Thank you to everyone, Nikki from Seachange, Brenda Beckwith Uvic and her amazing class, the feasting for change working group especially Doug, Sue, Jen and Fiona

Lewis Williams, Tsawout First Nation
Seachange and Feasting for Change