Abstract
Cooperatives offer a vehicle for community development in less-developed countries as well as in economically challenged indigenous communities in developed countries. The authors engaged in a participatory community development research project involving students and faculty working with the Island Lake Opakitawek Cooperative (ILOC), a fishery cooperative in the remote community of Garden Hill First Nation (GHFN) in Manitoba, Canada. The project included four general components: (a) a sustainable livelihoods assessment; (b) a basic community food security assessment; (c) strategic business analysis; and (d) a business plan. The analysis shows that traditional foodways and livelihoods take advantage of prodigious natural capital, and that this indigenous cooperative offers potential to improve the fishers' quality of life. However, we also found that fishers' livelihoods and the ILOC were not sustainable without significant changes. Together, high operating expenses and low prices for whole fish are impoverishing fishers. Despite the poor return on investment, commercial fishing has continued for decades due to its connection with traditional hunting and fishing activities and the region's high unemployment level. Working collaboratively with the ILOC and GHFN community we have been able to reinvigorate the cooperative based on local food provision and fair trade.
Highlights
An indigenous worldview offers a counterpoint to the more competitive forces that deprive and isolate indigenous people from community, land, culture, medicinal resources, and traditional foods. It is this indigenous worldview that led to the foundation of the Island Lake Opakitawek Cooperative (ILOC) in 1995, which currently operates a fish processing plant on the outskirts of the Garden Hill First Nation (GHFN) community
We discovered that GHFN and the other three Island Lake First Nation communities have the highest levels of pediatric diabetes in North America (Amed et al, 2010)
Project Outcomes Over the course of our three-year participatory community development research project, our engagement with the ILOC led to four specific outcomes: (1) expanding the local market; (2) adding value and positioning exports as fair trade products; (3) improving management systems for ILOC; and (4) creating a social net through employment insurance
Summary
Introduction and MethodsIt is widely understood that cooperatives have been successful in fighting poverty (Bharadwaj 2012; Bibby & Shaw, 2005; Birchall, 2003; Prasad & Satsangi, 2013; Wanyama, Develtere, & Pollet, 2009). Birchall (2004) touts cooperatives’ positive impact on poverty reduction, saying, “Their track record over 150 years in lifting whole groups of people out of poverty in the developed world is substantial” (p. 45). Country foods, fishing, local food economy, sustainable livelihoods, indigenous, First Nation, poverty, participatory community development research
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