Help Map Food Accessibility for Indigenous Communities in Canada

Are you a resident of Canada? If yes, I could use your help! I’m one of several cartographers working to publish an atlas on global food issues, and the map I’m drawing is on food accessibility in Canada, particularly for rural indigenous communities. I need Canadian residents to fill out a brief, 8-question anonymous survey (linked above), to help me collect data on food prices. I’ve listed some info on the project, the map, & myself below, but don’t be shy to message if you’ve got questions or suggestions.

My hope for the map is that it helps to magnify some of the struggles indigenous communities are dealing with in terms of food accessibility (see links below). I get to have considerable leeway with the presentation, so know that there will be not only a description of how these food accessibility issues are produced, but also highlights of indigenous activist groups, as well as a list of relevant politicians with contact info. I’m anticipating that the majority of people purchasing the atlas will be activists and academics, though I’ve been told there has also been interest in the project on behalf of food policy advocates and policymakers; if done well, I think this map (and the project as a whole) has the potential to draw considerable attention to some pretty major issues.

The Map: this map will use census information to show varying income levels and per capita indigenous populations throughout Canada, alongside cities weighted in size based on cost of sample basic groceries. That’s where I need your help—the survey collects information on how much groceries cost in your area. The goal is to illustrate the often unfairly high prices rural indigenous communities pay for their food; the map was in part inspired by the activism of peoples in Northern communities in this regard (see Feeding My Family for more info).
What Info You’ll Be Providing: The survey is totally anonymous. All that’s asked is province & city, & the cost of 1 loaf of bread, 4 servings of greens, 4 servings of chicken, 1 gallon of milk, and 1 gallon of juice. Just to make it clear: you don’t have to have indigenous ancestry to participate. Quite the opposite—the wider the scope of the survey, the more accurate the map will be.

The Project: Food: An Atlas is a book of maps of issues on food production, consumption, accessibility—if it’s about food, it’s in there. This project is headed by cartographers in UC Berkeley’s Geography department, though the contributing cartographers come from a wide range of locations and backgrounds.

Who I Am: I’m a freelance cartographer and artist, and an entering graduate student in an American Studies program. My undergraduate degree is in Geography, from UC Berkeley. I’m from an isolated community in the upper reaches of coastal Northern California, and am a strong activist on rural and indigenous issues.

Again, feel free to message me if you have any questions about me, the map, or the atlas. And please please signal boost—like I said, the wider the sample, the more accurate (and powerful) the map will be! Thank you!