Food, Culture, and Friendships

The Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre

Food from plants or animals is a gift from Mother Earth. It is able to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, and offer healing. While food is often considered a medicine for our physical health, it is just as important for our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Food brings people together, shapes memories, empowers community, can be an exploration of culture, and is a means to retain cultural identity. The Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre really tries to embody this spirit with the variety of community programming it offers, bringing food and the importance of food into activities and celebrations.

“Food has always played an integral part of Anishinaabe culture,” says Gloria Ranger, cultural resource coordinator. “We celebrate with feasts and we make food offerings to our ancestors. Food is a spiritual component and it brings our families together. There are strong values when it comes to food. There are also taboos and special times of the year for certain foods. It is so important that we show our gratitude and give thanks for food as it is picked, harvested, and prepared.”

Programs that incorporate traditional foods like wild rice, fish, moose meat, blueberries, or plant medicine harvesting are always popular. Living in the city means many urban Indigenous people don’t have regular access to these foods or the means to hunt and harvest themselves. The Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre acts as a hub for opportunity, learning, connection to culture, self-growth, and community growth.

While there are always educational components to the activities and participants get to reap the many health benefits of consuming these traditional foods, what often comes to fruition and shines are the memories, stories, and teachings people have in connection to the foods that they thought they had forgotten.

“I really enjoy the programs where we can learn about traditional foods. I signed up because it sounded fun, but I got so much more out of it than I could have expected. It has made me remember my childhood and the time I spent with my grandparents. They taught me so much in the bush. I want to learn more and bring that back to my life. It is helping me connect to who I am,” says Heather M. about a cooking class she participates in.

For many, the centre has become their second home. It truly is beautiful to witness the friendships that develop through the stories shared, knowing new memories are being created while coming together in programming and enjoying food together.

Food is everything. Food connects us to the land, the elements, the animals, Spirit World and Mother Earth. Food teaches us that everything around us is connected and gives us the door to connections. Food and friendship are truly the greatest gifts.

“Food has always played an integral part of Anishinaabe culture.”