Project Summary:

This project expanded and enhanced impacts across key agriculture and agri-food sectors, particularly local food production, food processing, value-added production, and new product creation. It worked to build relationships with harvesters, food processors, producers, and distributors for sectoral inclusion while exploring ways to streamline getting those products into the community. Cross-cultural and traditional knowledge exchange, similar to a “train the trainer” approach, supported advancing economic reconciliation through food-sector skills development, entrepreneurial capacity building, early career exposure, and growth opportunities within these sectors.

Community Engagement

Community engagement began in July 2023, using participatory and co-designed approaches. The project team actively engaged key stakeholders, including Indigenous youth, knowledgeable Elders from Lac du Bonnet and Rankin Inlet, local food producers, entrepreneurs, businesses, northern community programs, Manitoba Agriculture program staff, and policy analysts. In-depth meetings, roundtable group discussions, and informal consultation sessions were employed to gather valuable insights and diverse perspectives, which were integrated into the project’s design to ensure goals and outcomes were achievable and aligned with community priorities. This project built on those engagements in Fall 2023.

Inclusion

This project prioritized the inclusion and empowerment of northern and newly urban youth, Elders, women, and interested community members through targeted training, mentorship, traditional knowledge exchange, and access to resources. It enhanced and built on the outcomes of the pilot project, “The Art of Canning for Cultural Entrepreneurship,” submitted on August 14, 2023.

The program was informed by research from the ArcticNet Network Centre of Excellence Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy in 2020-2021. Elements of this program were piloted and tested over three years, supported by the US National Science Foundation, the ArcticNet Network Centre of Excellence, Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse, and Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program. Acknowledgment is given to support from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Arts Entrepreneurship Program and the Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth.

With a strong focus on inclusive, co-designed, and co-led intergenerational partnerships fusing traditional knowledge and modern approaches, these strategies aimed to foster economic reconciliation while reinforcing social connectedness, community cohesion, and resilience.

Project Description:

Indigenous communities and stakeholders identified a need to preserve traditional food systems, promote cultural heritage, and enable inclusive economic opportunities. Building on the Fall-Winter 2023 pilot, this project enhanced traditional food systems through training in canning, preservation, and transferable skills and career development.

This second iteration of the canning and food product development project expanded to include internships and mentorship for highly engaged, emerging food sector entrepreneurs interested in agri-food, food production, and related fields. Learners explored canning, preservation, and creating, marketing, showcasing, and selling new food products. The project equipped them with essential skills to enter the food sector.

Through hands-on group workshops, food literacy, oral history, and community building through traditional knowledge sharing activities, participants experienced canning and preservation in traditional and modern contexts. The project team enhanced the basic curriculum and knowledge transfer materials developed during the pilot to improve its quality and facilitate scaling up the program.

Facilitated by expert food industry mentors, workshops provided tools like canning jars, utensils, canners, and labels for hands-on learning. Engaging with mentors and experts fostered an iterative process, promoting a comprehensive understanding of canning and the exchange of innovative ideas.

The project fostered economic reconciliation by offering early-career pathways to agri-food sector employment. Relationship building and interactions continued beyond the program, forming a network contributing to long-term sustainability, individual, and community well-being. Acquired skills created lasting impacts in participants’ careers and communities. Continuous feedback and Key Performance Indicators were developed to drive ongoing improvements, with modular, replicable curriculum models for future delivery.

Training Details:

The project expanded and enhanced the pilot program tested in Fall-Winter 2023 by scaling up into a comprehensive three-month training and mentorship initiative. The project went beyond food preservation, encompassing transferable skills for cultural entrepreneurship, and the agri-food, food processing, and product development sectors.

Training was designed based on prior research, showing that Indigenous youth are stronger and healthier and more able to carve out successful futures when connected to their history, culture, and community. A small workshop size of 6-10 attendees promoted effective peer-to-peer learning, facilitating personalized attention, active engagement, and collaborative learning. It fostered open discussions, relationship building, timely feedback, and encouraged participants to interact and learn from each other.

Building on, and scaling up from the pilot, the project team co-constructed a foundational curriculum to more effectively underpin a train-the-trainer strategy. These materials formed a package participants could apply toward sharing their learning with other northern or home communities.

Additionally, the involvement of emerging Indigenous youth, artists, and cultural entrepreneurs played an integral role in capturing the learning process through video documentation, short interviews, and leveraging social media platforms to communicate and showcase achieved outcomes.

For the winter 2024 season, the team co-designed and co-delivered an expanded, refined food preservation workshop during Canada’s third National Kindness Week, celebrated from Sunday, February 11, 2024, to Sunday, February 18. Activities overlapped with this special week, which included a national press conference on Monday, February 12th, and a special Canadian Kids for Kindness national event with schools from across Canada on Tuesday, February 13th.

Project Outcomes:

1. Establishing a Supportive Network: Through workshops, community building, and group interaction with peers and mentors, the project created a supportive network extending beyond the program. This network facilitated ongoing relationship building, collaboration, and knowledge exchange, contributing to the sustainability and replicability of the program and supporting future training and collaborations.
2. Enhancing Curriculum for Traditional Food Systems Training: The project supported preserving and revitalizing traditional food systems through training in canning, preservation, and transferable skills development. This empowered participants with knowledge and techniques to preserve cultural heritage, traditional practices, support self-determination, and food sector employment skills.
3. Empowering Indigenous Food Sector Entrepreneurship: By providing internships and mentorship to emerging food sector entrepreneurs, the project equipped learners with essential skills for agri-food, food production, and related fields. This contributed to early-career exposure, fostering economic reconciliation, and promoting long-term self-reliance and community well-being.