Ethnobiology of Northeastern Turtle Island Food & Medicine: Summary of an NSIS Lecture

Abstract

Food, medicine, and material culture are related topics. Securing access requires a respect for the natural laws of the environment. With examples from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (in Ontario), Mi’kmaq First Nation, and global indigenous nations, we observe that indigenous peoples are natural leaders for achieving an ecological balance with our oral stories that document our traditional observations for millennia. Indigenous spirituality and ecological ways of knowing provide solutions for dealing with climate change, local food, medicine, and material security. With ethnobiology, we awaken native linguistic knowledge, traditions in medicine and foods, and discover designs that were laid dormant by colonization. Native languages and verbal traditions carefully describe a holistic role that applies to the land, while acknowledging all our relationships with water, plants, medicines, fish, flyers and crawlers, emphasizing their importance to all.