Abstract
In 2013 a participatory research project explored food security in Pictou Landing First Nation, a Mi’kmaq community geographically located in Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The project used photovoice—a qualitative research method that collects photographic data along with oral information from project participants. The findings revealed that pollution and ecological changes around Pictou Landing First Nation were the most significant community challenge to eating well. Community members shared photographs and stories to describe their experiences with food and point to their key concerns, which also included physical and economic access to healthy food. Participants also commented on a number of great assets in the community, such as the recent development of community gardens and the knowledge of traditional foods that still exists in the community. This chapter offers reflections on the project’s findings and on the use of photovoice to examine social dimensions of food systems . The chapter also considers the larger implications of these findings to the issues of Indigenous community food security, cultural safety, and ecological consequences of industrialization.
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Notes
- 1.
Project funding allowed us to hire three individuals. Training undertaken by the community researchers included a basic introduction to research, research ethics, specific research methodologies and data analysis. Additionally, two community researchers completed the Community Food Mentor training through the Pictou County Health Authority. Two of the three employees worked on the project for several weeks each. The third, Jordan Francis, worked for the duration of the project, first as Research Assistant and then as Coordinator. She undertook the majority of project promotion, community outreach, data collection, transcription and dissemination. She also assisted in project planning, data analysis and report writing.
- 2.
Cynthia Watt, former Food Costing Project Coordinator, prepared the Pictou Landing scenarios, building on the methods and model previously published related to scenarios (Williams et al. 2012a, b), and the Consumer Price Index adjustment tables (developed by Dr. Ilya Blum, Mount Saint Vincent University).
- 3.
For the complete set of posters see our project report at http://foodarc.ca/project-activities/pictou-landing-cfs/.
- 4.
Earlier on in the project, our Research Coordinator (Jordan Francis) also prepared a presentation to share preliminary findings more widely. She presented this work to an audience of 100+ on August 21st, 2013 at the ACT for CFS gathering in Halifax that included community food security researchers and activists from across Canada. On October 16th, 2013 that same presentation was also a part of Research Remixed, a two day research event at Mount Saint Vincent University.
- 5.
You can find the video presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aRLqBW4tUQ or by searching “Community Food Security in Pictou Landing First Nation” on YouTube.
- 6.
Since this study was completed, the provincial government in Nova Scotia has begun redressing some of the concerns identified here, including ordering the pulp mill in question to pay an environmental fine of 225,000 CAD for its 2014 spill of 47-million litres of mill effluent into Boat Harbour. A portion of the fine will be awarded to Pictou Landing Frist Nation.
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Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research Program with additional support from the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and Activating Change Together for Community Food Security (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and led by FoodARC, Mount Saint Vincent University and the Nova Scotia Food Security Network). Time, energy and space were also generously donated by the community of Pictou Landing, Pictou County Health Authority, Pictou County Food Security Coalition, FoodARC and the Nova Scotia Participatory Food Costing and Activating Change Together for Community Food Security projects.
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Pictou Landing First Nation, Knezevic, I. (2017). Community Food Security in Pictou Landing First Nation. In: Knezevic, I., Blay-Palmer, A., Levkoe, C., Mount, P., Nelson, E. (eds) Nourishing Communities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57000-6_3
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