First Nations culinary experts explore traditional Indigenous cuisine

First Nations culinary talents in Vancouver are looking to bring their food to the forefront.

This year is the first time in 28 years that an Indigenous showcase is featured at Vancouver's Harmony Arts Festival.

"At the district of West Vancouver we've been doing lots of learning about the Squamish Nation and the Coast Salish territories, and we wanted to feature that here at the festival," West Vancouver's manager of special events, Christie Rosta, told On the Coast guest host Angela Sterritt.

The festival is on until Sunday, Aug. 12, at Ambleside Landing in West Vancouver on the unceded land of the Coast Salish people.  

'Food from the land'

Earlier this week at the festival, a  sold-out  Indigenous feast featured slow-cooked bison, clams steamed in bentwood cedar boxes and 'oolichan in a blanket' — little fish wrapped in pastry. Oolichan is a delicacy for Indigenous people on B.C.'s North and Central Coast.

Rosta created the menu for Tuesday's Indigenous feast with local culinary expert Inez Cook who  provided knowledge about traditional foods. 

Cook, of the Nuxalk Nation, is the owner of Salmon n' Bannock in Vancouver. It is the city's only First Nations restaurant.

Cook described the menu items for the Indigenous feast as "food from the land."

Latash-Maurice Nahanee of the Squamish Nation curated the art exhibition at Harmony Arts Festival's Indigenous showcase and says food is another way to share culture.

"We believe that family meals are such an important way of showing your love for each other … by sharing a meal and sharing time together out of your busy day," Nahanee told Sterritt. 

Festival-goers will be able to visit the region's first Indigenous food truck, Chef Paul Natrall's Mr. Bannock.

Exploring Indigenous culinary roots

Those interested in exploring Indigenous cuisine can do so even after the festival ends.

The BigHeart Bannock Cultural Café is headed by Lauraleigh Paul Yuxweluputun'aat of Coast Salish, Interior Salish and Carrier heritage. She provides brunch at the Skwachàys Lodge on Pender Street in downtown Vancouver every weekend.

"Their mandate at the cafe is really two-fold," On the Coast food columnist Gail Johnson told Sterritt. "It's to revive the palate for wild foods in Indigenous urbanized settings. And they also want to educate and inform those whom they call Canadian allies about the foods their people have been eating for millennia"

These foods include alfalfa nettles, licorice roots, spruce tips and cedar.

"Even though what they're doing is old — thousands and thousands of years old — it's still new to a lot of non-Indigenous people," says Johnson.

Yuxweluputun'aat's brunches feature homemade strawberry sweetgrass jam, Salish herbal jam with hibiscus flowers, bison sausage and wild boar sausage patties with elderberry aioli.

"It's all about reminding Indigenous people about their culinary roots, and nourishing everybody that walks in the door," says Johnson.

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With files from On The Coast and Angela Sterritt