Series Introduction

Key Takeaways

Canadian food is not defined by a single dish, but by layered histories and regional traditions.
Indigenous Peoples developed the first sustainable food systems on this land.
Immigrant communities brought diverse culinary knowledge, shaped by adaptation and resourcefulness.
This series reclaims and recontextualizes foods like salmon, bannock, berries, dumplings, and maple syrup.
Understanding Canada through food reveals both its complexity and its potential for repair.

What Makes Canadian Food… Canadian?

Poutine? Nanaimo bars? Barbecue ribs glazed with maple syrup?

Ask five Canadians what defines our national cuisine and you’ll get five different answers—and all of them will be at least partly right. That’s because food in Canada doesn’t come from a single origin or follow one thread. It’s a patchwork of memory, migration, adaptation, and survival.

From the coastal fishways of the Haida to Ukrainian perogies in prairie towns, from Quebec’s sugar shacks to Chinese restaurant menus reinvented for western diners, Canadian food is best understood not by what’s on the plate—but how it got there.

Beyond the Stereotypes: A More Honest Plate

Canada is often romanticized as a multicultural food haven, but that story is incomplete.

Before colonization, the land was home to rich Indigenous food systems—based on sustainable harvesting, seasonal migration, agriculture, and deep ecological knowledge. These systems were disrupted, and in many cases violently suppressed, during colonization. Yet they persist and are being revitalized through community-led food sovereignty movements.

At the same time, the settler story is more than forks and flags. Immigrants brought their food with them—not as luxuries, but as anchors of identity. They adapted recipes using new ingredients, built gardens in harsh climates, and created dishes that reflected both memory and necessity.

Many foods now seen as “Canadian staples”—bannock, maple syrup, smoked fish, pickles—are in fact survival foods, born of hardship, ingenuity, and cultural exchange.

Why Reclaiming Food Stories Matters

This series, What We Eat on This Land, isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about reclaiming, reframing, and reconnecting.

Reclaiming the Indigenous origins of foods like maple sugar, wild rice, and pemmican.
Reframing how we think about immigrant recipes not as “ethnic cuisine” but as part of the Canadian fabric.
Reconnecting with seasonal rhythms, land-based knowledge, and cultural memory.

Food is never just food—it’s history, politics, climate, and care. To understand what we eat in Canada is to understand who we are, how we got here, and what kind of future we might grow toward.

This five-part series explores summer foods commonly found on Canadian tables, and traces the deep roots and evolving meanings behind them:

Beyond the Barbecue: What’s really behind the corn, salmon, sausages, and berries we eat every July 1st?
The Maple Lineage: The Indigenous origins and environmental future of Canada’s iconic sweetener.
Catch and Honour: A journey through fishing traditions, smokehouses, and fish fries from coast to coast.
Grains Across Borders: From prairie perogies to Montreal bagels—how bread and dumplings fed communities.
Summer Tables, Shared Plates: How immigrant food festivals keep culture alive through flame, feast, and flavour.

Each piece offers a mix of history, sustainability, cultural context, and inspiration for your own seasonal table.

How to Read This Series

You can follow the series in order or jump into the stories that resonate most with you. Each article is meant to stand alone—but together, they tell a richer story of this place and the many peoples who call it home.

Whether you’re here for the history, the recipes, or the reflections, we hope you come away with a deeper appreciation for what we eat on this land—and why it matters.

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