Standing With Quw’utsun: Camas, Food Sovereignty, and the ALC Decision

 Standing With Quw’utsun: Camas, Food Sovereignty, and the ALC Decision

When I first read the Agricultural Land Commission’s decision and their dismissive comments about camas, I was furious. “How do you know you can grow camas?” they asked. Imagine the audacity of questioning the knowledge of Indigenous people who have tended these foods for thousands of years. Camas was — and is — a cornerstone of food systems for the Cowichan, the Songhees, and many other nations on Vancouver Island. Women carefully cultivated, harvested, and managed camas fields with knowledge passed down generation after generation.

To suggest that camas “cannot grow here” isn’t just ignorance — it’s erasure. It’s a continuation of the colonial myth that Indigenous peoples were simply “hunter-gatherers” with no agricultural sophistication. The truth is the opposite: Quw’utsun and many other nations developed complex, regenerative systems of agriculture and aquaculture that sustained entire regions without destroying ecosystems.

The estuary at Quw'utsun and Xwulqwselu was once alive with camas, silverweed, clover, crab apples, salmon weirs, shellfish gardens, and duck nets. It was a thriving, resilient food system that supported people and the land in balance. Colonization ripped this apart by diking the estuary, draining it, and turning it into hay fields for livestock. Now, Indigenous communities are fighting to restore what was lost — not just for cultural survival, but for our collective future.

Because here’s the truth: western, industrial agriculture is not sustainable. It consumes fossil fuels, fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides that strip the land and accelerate climate change. Indigenous food systems, on the other hand, regenerate soil, strengthen ecosystems, and provide foods that heal our bodies and protect our waters.

And yet, when Indigenous people put forward a plan to bring this vision to life, the ALC — a commission with no Indigenous representation and no expertise in Indigenous agriculture — said no. They told the people whose ancestors fed this land for millennia that they couldn’t remove a dike, that they couldn’t restore their foods, that they must instead conform to colonial ideas of “agriculture.” That is colonization happening in real time.

This isn’t just about Indigenous rights (though it absolutely is). It’s about food security and climate resilience for everyone. Today Vancouver Island produces only 5–10% of its own food. Before contact, Indigenous nations produced 100% of it here. If we truly want food security, if we want to survive climate change, we need Indigenous food systems back.

I raise my hands to those leading this fight. To the elders, knowledge keepers, and youth who keep pushing. To those who wrote letters, stood up in meetings, and refused to let this be erased again.

This is not over. That dike will come down. For the salmon. For the camas. For the children to come.

And when it does, I hope all of us — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — will be there, ready to build a different kind of future together.

 #FoodSovereignty #Camas #CowichanStrong #LandBack #ClimateResilience