With their modest income, the Koostachins said they cannot afford to buy healthy food such as vegetables at the store. ” An average family of four in Peawanuck must spend around 30 percent more to purchase a standard selection of healthy food each month compared to a family in Toronto. If not enough food can be harvested from the land-through hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants-their only option is to buy costly food imported from the “South. As the climate continues to warm, these changes to their lands and environment will intensify, and their traditional sources of sustenance could entirely disappear.Īlready, as a result of these changes, the Koostachins have not been able to harvest the food they need to ensure an adequate diet, and, like many northern and remote First Nations people in Canada, they lack a cost-effective, healthy alternative. And it is harder-at times impossible-to hunt them because the ice and permafrost they must travel over is no longer stable throughout the winter, while the waters they traverse in summer are unpredictably low. There are fewer caribou and geese migrating to the area. Yet as global temperatures have risen as a result of climate change, the Koostachins’ way of life, and livelihood, have become increasingly difficult to maintain, and the realization of their rights to food, health, and culture are at risk. © 2020 John Emerson for Human Rights Watch Going out on the land means more than just finding food, however, it is also a reflection of their deep ties to the land of their ancestors and its importance to their cultural identity and traditions.Īreas where Human Rights Watch conducted interviews. Joseph and Helen’s sons are now grown and have taken over the responsibility of securing food from the land for the family. The Koostachins live in Peawanuck, a remote community on Hudson Bay in the Canadian province of Ontario. The varied, seasonal harvest helped Joseph feed his family healthy food year-round.
They would hunt caribou, a large type of deer, in the winter, while snow geese predictably arrived in April, and fish were bountiful in summer. The winters were cold, with ice and snow cover allowing them to travel by dog sled from November through April. In the summer, the forests and meadows were lush and the water in the rivers plentiful. Joseph Koostachin, 58, remembers when he and his wife Helen, 56, went out on the land to hunt and berry pick with their young children.
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