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Food Sovereignty: A Story of Unsettling, Resistance and Resilience of Curve Lake First Nation

In the Summer of 2023, Prof Leanne Roderick travelled to Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario to speak with Ken Jacobs (Curve Lake First Nation Elected Councillor) and James Whetung (Binesi) (Anishnaabe wild rice grower, educator, and activist).  This video combines interview footage that was collected during that trip.

In this video, we explore the ongoing tensions between land and water rights of the Curve Lake First Nation with non-Indigenous cottagers in the area. Centered on the conflict over wild rice cultivation in Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes, we will hear from James, who plants and harvests wild rice as an act of cultural reclamation and environmental stewardship.  Local cottagers oppose his efforts, seeing the plant as an obstruction to their recreational lake use.

It also highlights aspects of Ken’s decades-long career, working within various branches of government to address longstanding inequities within his own community and other Indigenous communities across the country.