Gaagige Zaagibiga, formerly, The Northern Ontario Indigenous Food Security Collaborative is a community-led initiative that is bringing Indigenous practitioners, funders and other stakeholders together to develop a food system planning and resourcing process that strengthens Indigenous food sovereignty and food security.
ACTION's (Anishinaabek Clans to Invoke our Nation) Central Organizing Committee Coordinator, Johnny Hawke from the Gchimnissing Anishinabek (Beausoleil First Nation) applied to the opportunity as part of ACTION'S Bii Giiweymin Food Sovereignty Project and helped Indigenous Youth from his community, help feed their families and occupy traditional territory for harvesting rights off-reserve.
ACTION's Bii Gieweymin is helping community members use their territories for Spring Harvesting for this applications such as Maple Syrup Production and Pickeral Harvest in their rightful territory.
"For 100 years our 7 Clan Communities have been criminalized by the unlawful treatment of the Crown and its Agents for feeding ourselves where our rights to our lands have been recognized in a 2018 Agreements" explains Hawke.
In 2018 an agreement between 7 First Nations; Beausoleil, Hiawatha, Curve Lake, Scugog, Rama, Georgina Island, Alderville and the Province of Ontario and Federal Government compenated these communities and reinstated their harvesting rights to 13 Million Acres in central Ontario.
"ACTION is a self sufficient grassroots traditional government remerging from the colonial Indian Act Governments the currently operate our community following colonial policies and learned behaviours where ACTION is the change" says Hawke.
Gaagige Zaagibiga's Facebook Page states that currently, in northern Ontario, there is no systematic or organized strategy for addressing food insecurity in Indigenous communities that clearly links community driven priorities, integrated comprehensive planning, and financial and technical resources. The Centre is supporting the Collaborative to develop a community-led food system planning and resourcing process with the goal of supporting households and communities to advance food-based initiatives that align with Indigenous values and in Indigenous settings.
Gaagige Zaagibiga translates to 'forever cultivating' where the organization began in 2020 under the name “The Northern Ontario Indigenous Food Sovereignty Collaborative – NOIFSC”.
Johnny Hawke an organizer of ACTION has been reclaiming contested lands of the Negik and Atik Clan Territories (Simcoe County) since 2009 for Water and Land Defence for current issues of the unlawful acts by the Crowns and Government of Canada of Genocide upon the Indigneous such as denying harvesting and hunting rights.
For More information on Gaagige Zaagibiga and ACTION is available at the group’s websites.
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