This episode is Part 1 in our series on Indigenous Foodways. We’re talking with Jess Housty from her kitchen in Bella Bella. Jess shares with us the story of her community’s Granny’s Gardens: a food sovereignty project that is rooted within the traditions of the Heiltsuk Nation on British Columbia’s central coast. 

The Nathan E. Stewart ran aground in 2016 in Gale Pass, spilling 100,000 litres of diesel onto the clam beds and beaches that have been a breadbasket for Heiltsuk people since time immemorial. The devastating spill triggered a legal challenge that, in part, seeks to assert aboriginal title to the foreshore and seabed in the Gale Pass area. Though the disaster caused waves of trauma throughout  the Heiltsuk community, it also had some surprising side effects. Hear Jess talk about how the community’s response to the twin disasters of COVID-19 and the spill brought about a strengthening of community foodways.

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