Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Congeners in Ooligan Grease: A Traditional Food Fat of British Columbia First Nations

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hing Man Chan ◽  
Maroun El Khoury ◽  
Maggie Sedgemore ◽  
Scotty Sedgemore ◽  
Harriet V. Kuhnlein
2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (03) ◽  
pp. 65-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Merz ◽  
Malcolm Steinberg

The inequitable population prevalence rates of obesity and diabetes being experienced by First Nations peoples in British Columbia require public health protection practitioners to deepen their inquiry into the social determinants of these chronic conditions. These attempts need to be placed within the context of food insecurity that is garnering growing attention from public health at large and, more specifically, within the emerging Indigenous consensus understanding of the relationship between the ongoing nutrition transition and the inequitable prevalence rates of these conditions. We suggest that these reflections are productively theorized from a Political Economy of Health standpoint and supported by representative findings from the First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey. This theoretical perspective supports the viewpoint that the inequitable expression of these chronic conditions can be attributed to the nutrition transition that populations experienced as they were shifted from a traditional subsistence diet to a commoditized, industrialized food production system. This analysis also supports the structural recommendations of the British Columbia Food Systems Network Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty that would remove barriers and threats to traditional food acquisition. These include making environmental protection and conservation of biological diversity a priority in all land use planning; setting aside adequate tracts of land for the protection, conservation, and restoration of Indigenous food systems; giving priority to traditional food and cultural values in contemporary forestry, fisheries, rangeland, and agrarian management policies and practice; and giving priority to Indigenous food and cultural harvesting over commoditized, export-oriented commercial harvesting. Public health protection practitioners will be progressively challenged to support these recommendations by the communities they serve. Although there is no guarantee that implementation of these recommendations will reverse the trend of decreasing participation rates in traditional food harvesting in British Columbia, we suggest that unless many of the systemic irrationalities, vested interests, and historically unjust rationales for maintaining the status quo with respect to Indigenous food sovereignty are interrogated and challenged, an ancient lifeway grounded in demonstrably sustainable traditional food harvesting practices will remain threatened.


1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet V. Kuhnlein ◽  
Faustinus Yeboah ◽  
Maggie Sedgemore ◽  
Scotty Sedgemore ◽  
Hing Man Chan

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cowichan Tribes

Cowichan Tribes’ territory, located in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, is experiencing an alarmingly high rate of preterm births compared to the national average of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. In response, and in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), Cowichan Tribes is in the first year of a 3-year study to investigate causes. Cowichan Tribes’ Elders and community members are guiding the study to ensure it follows Cowichan Tribes’ research processes and to support self- determination in research. Furthermore, as a way to enhance reconciliation, Elders and community members guided an on-site ethics review on Cowichan Tribes territory. This article outlines the collaborative, in-person research ethics review process that Cowichan Tribes, Island Health, and FNHA completed on August 21, 2019. The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions other First Nations could use when conducting a research ethics review, and to explain how this process aligns with the principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP®), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and above all, the Cowichan snuw’uy’ulh (teachings from Elders).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13270
Author(s):  
Max C. Leveridge ◽  
Amélie Y. Davis ◽  
Sarah L. Dumyahn

Cohabitation between humans and carnivores is vital to the continued existence and integrity of ecosystems, often playing a large role in the success of large carnivore conservation. We focus on interactions between humans and carnivores in the world’s largest, relatively intact temperate rainforest—The Great Bear Rainforest (GBR), British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, we focus on residents of Prince Rupert, a city within the GBR, and examine its residents’ ecological and relational attitudes towards the surrounding area of protected rainforest and the large carnivores present in the area. We aim to determine the strength of public attitudes and values of the environment and carnivores in the GBR, and to examine whether they differ between First Nations and non-First Nations residents of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. We conducted 28 semi-structured interviews of Prince Rupert residents. At the start of the interview, respondents self-administered a survey consisting of statements from the Social Ecological Relational Value and the New Ecological Paradigm scales. We find no significant difference between First Nations and non-First Nations respondent attitudes. This is possibly due to three factors: (1) cultural influence from the local First Nations, (2) the fact that these carnivores are important for the local economy through tourism, and (3) a strong sense of place associated with the area and the carnivores that inhabit it regardless of positive or negative encounters with these animals. While we find positive attitudes towards carnivores and little evidence of human–wildlife conflict, feelings towards carnivores encountered in town or while hiking tend to be negative, especially when they involve wolves. In order to mitigate these effects in a way that protects these valuable creatures, respondents overwhelmingly clamored for a conservation officer to be assigned to Prince Rupert. We conclude that policy and management might alleviate human–carnivore conflicts in the area should our results be corroborated by studies with larger sample sizes.


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