Food on the Brain: Nutrition in Indigenous Communities
CCNA Knowledge Mobilization Event (2025)
Webinar presentation on the importance of incorporating language, culture, and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge into nutrition, the impact of environmental contaminants on food systems, and the necessity for strength-based and community-based research in this area.
- The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA)'s Indigenous Cognitive Health (ICH) Program, co-led by Drs. Jennifer Walker and Pamela Roach, hosted a webinar called "Food on the Brain: Nutrition in Indigenous Communities" in December 2024. This webinar was part of CCNA's Talking Brain Webinar Series, highlighting brain health information.
- Presenters Deyowidron't Morrow (Cayuga Nation, Wolf Clan), Anik Obomsawin (Odanak First Nation), and Tim Poitras (Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation) gathered in powerful dialogue to share their wisdom, lived experience, and Indigenous perspectives on nutrition, wellness, and brain health across the lifecycle.
- A total of 120 people attended the webinar, including CCNA members and interested participants from outside the CCNA community, making it the best-attended CCNA webinar to date.
"From the sacred words of the Ganǫhǫnyǫhk (Thanksgiving Address) to truths about intergenerational trauma and the strength of our food sovereignty movements, this gathering reminded us that food is more than sustenance—it is spirit, memory, healing, and resistance.
Let us carry forward the message that our communities already hold solutions, and that nourishing our minds, bodies, and spirits must be rooted in culture, ceremony, and relational care.
So be it in our minds – Nê togyę́ : Niyódo̲hǫ:k Ǫgwânigǫ́hâ."
About the Team
Drs Jennifer Walker and Pamela Roach co-lead CCNA's ICH program that aims to build up capacity within the network to support healthy, respectful, dementia research partnerships between Indigenous communities and/or organizations and researchers.
Learn more about the CCNA: About Us - CCNA-CCNV.
Links to key/related outputs, including academic and non-academic, and further reading:
- Indigenous Cognitive Health
- All Nations' Healing Hospital
- Indigenous Nutritional Knowledge Information Network
- CCNA's talking brains webinar series
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