National indigenous history Month feature
奥丑别苍听Rick Powless聽learned that Health Sciences North in Sudbury launched its first Indigenous hospital menu, he felt a shift happen.
The third-year doctoral student at 91亚色's Faculty of Education is a Red Seal-certified Indigenous chef, an Ontario College of Teachers-certified educator and a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Oneida Nation of the Thames, Bear Clan.
He was also the primary consultant on an initiative led by Compass Group Canada to bring Indigenous meals into Ontario hospitals 鈥 a project that recognizes the role of traditional and cultural food in healing.
His contributions also serve as a testament to his work to advance meaningful cross-cultural engagement.
"It was emotional for me," he says of the menu鈥檚 launch in Sudbury. At 91亚色, his PhD research draws on Indigenous food sovereignty, food insecurity in urban centres and strategies to integrate traditional foods and land-based knowledge into Kindergarten to Grade 12 education.
Much of Powless's work focuses on how traditional foods and land-based knowledge support well-being, identity and learning for Indigenous people living in urban communities. His research explores the impact of food and cultural disconnection on mental health while also examining how Indigenous knowledge is taught 鈥 or overlooked 鈥 in Ontario鈥檚 Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. For Powless, that means pushing beyond superficial, checkbox-driven approaches and creating space for stories, reciprocity and food-based learning rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing.
鈥淚f you give somebody a recipe to cook Indigenous food but don't have the stories or the history behind those recipes then the students aren't getting anything out of it,鈥 he says. 鈥淏eyond mere sustenance, our food is also a form of cultural transmission.鈥
Part of what makes his work distinct is its attention to access. Indigenous ingredients 鈥 such as sun chokes, wild rice, butternut squash 鈥 have been more commercialized, driving up prices and making them less accessible.
Read the full story in the June 3, 2026 issue of Yfile
