Ian Mosby is a food historian and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He drives home the important and urgent issue of food insecurity in Indigenous communities — particularly highlighting the context of Canada’s residential school system. It all began in 2013 when Mosby made national news. Perhaps most notably, he made known alarming discoveries of nutritional deficiencies suffered by Indigenous children at numerous institutions, including the Alberni Indian Residential School in British Columbia.
His research uncovered that children at the Alberni school exhibited the highest rates of riboflavin (vitamin B2) deficiency, prompting an experiment aimed at evaluating the potential benefits of increasing milk consumption. This exploration was one small piece of a larger movement to measure dietary deficiencies that afflicted these kids over multiple schools. Mosby’s impact didn’t stop in Alberni. He used data from the Ontario schools St. Mary’s and Cecilia Jeffrey, as well as Schubenacadie school in Nova Scotia and St. Paul’s and Blood schools near Lethbridge, Alberta.
The MOVERS team of medical and dental providers meticulously worked to conduct a complete medical and dental exam. Along with conducting blood tests, they analyzed dietary records.
“The investigations employed a variety of different experts, ranging from nutrition professionals, doctors, and nurses to dentists, photographers and lab technicians,” – Ian Mosby
Mosby’s findings revealed the deeply troubling absence of key vitamins in the daily diets of Indigenous children. He noted that millions were deprived of foods rich in these vitamins A, B, C, and iodine. This deficiency contributed greatly to their malnutrition.
“The diets of the children were lacking in vitamins A, B, and C and iodine because they were not being provided with enough foods like milk, fruit, vegetables, eggs, cheese, and iodized salt,” – Ian Mosby
Another big innovation at St. Mary’s School was the adoption of a “Newfoundland Flour Mix.” This popular mix is fortified with synthetic nutrients thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and bonemeal. This combination could not be legally sold outside Newfoundland due to food adulteration laws that were already on the books.
Mosby documented an experiment that involved tripling the milk consumption of students to assess its impact on their vitamin levels. He continually emphasized the need to step back and view the larger picture of colonialism’s impacts on food security. His attempts to get this point across never faltered.
“These experiments therefore must be remembered and recognized for what they truly were: one among many examples of a larger institutionalized and ultimately dehumanizing colonialist racial ideology that has governed Canada’s policies towards and treatment of Aboriginal peoples throughout the twentieth century,” – Ian Mosby
Rachel (Dickens) Greening, a Cree and Metis advocate for food sovereignty and Indigenous community health, speaks to Mosby’s experiences. She maintains that different forms of colonization are deeply connected to the food insecurity that many Indigenous communities experience today.
“Colonization is directly linked to food insecurity. It has resulted in deep poverty for our people,” – Rachel (Dickens) Greening
Greening uses the lens of historical injustices to unveil the roots of these long-lasting struggles. She thinks about the limits that have been put on Indigenous peoples’ self-determination in their education and way of life.
“There are so many examples, like we weren’t allowed to go to university, we weren’t allowed to leave the reserve, we weren’t allowed to sell our fish. There are so many reasons why we are behind in that respect,” – Rachel (Dickens) Greening
Furthermore, Greening addresses how the residential school legacy has changed the ways in which Indigenous peoples are connected to traditional foods. Many Indigenous individuals were taught to view European foods as superior while their own cultural dietary practices were dismissed as inferior.
“And for many, the residential school system has really impacted our relationships with food. Our traditional foods were vilified. We were taught that European foods are better and healthier and they are not dirty like traditional foods,” – Rachel (Dickens) Greening
The findings from Mosby’s research highlight a haunting reality: rather than receiving necessary nourishment, many children in residential schools were exploited as subjects in experiments designed to observe the impacts of inadequate diets.
“They identified that children attending the school were malnourished and instead of feeding them they were used as control subjects. It’s so sad,” – Rachel (Dickens) Greening
