Southern Alberta First Nations come together to feed unhoused Indigenous Calgarians

A group of Indigenous outreach workers has organized an event supporting those who live on Calgary's streets. It's called Feeding the People.

First Nations members from across southern Alberta joined together on Tuesday to help offer a meal to Indigenous Calgarians living on the streets.

September Daniels co-founded the project, called Feeding the People.

She says it was created as a way to help Indigenous Calgarians get support from their Nations.

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“There were no Indigenous peoples coming in to help their own people,” she said. “This is the reason why I wanted to start the event, is to bring awareness and get the [Treaty 7 Nations] to come in with their resources, their help with what they do, and the reserve to come in to connect with their own people and start maybe assisting them to try and get the help that they need.”

The event saw the doors of the Central United Church open up to hundreds of the city’s less fortunate.

Before they got to the dining hall, the attendees had access to information from their individual Nations.

Daniels says “Indigenous helping Indigenous” can make all the difference.

“When you see Indigenous [offering help and you’re] Indigenous, you feel like you’re home,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my God, I see someone that’s like me,’ you know? And then they feel so comfortable and so safe that they can just connect with you.”

Feeding the People takes place twice a year; once in the spring and again in the fall.

Daniels says it serves as a tribute of sorts for her brother Jason, who died while battling addiction while unhoused.

His artwork is now in the dining hall at the church.

“It’s called For your Spirit, and that free spirit is actually when he was struggling on the streets," Daniels said. “This was one of his last art pieces that he created.”

Kristen Bishop from Alpha House Society is a co-founder of Feeding the People, and says it’s interesting seeing different Nations come together to help their own.

“For me, it was important being non-Indigenous, the understanding and the more I’ve learned about their culture and practices, I thought it was very important to be an ally bringing the nations together,” she said. “I think knowledge is power, and so having more of an understanding on different cultures and learning about more about intergenerational trauma and things that they’ve experienced, it helps me provide space for them and for everybody that I come across.”

Rae Dawn Whitney, Tsuut’ina Nation outreach supervisor, says she has seen first-hand the difference it makes when Indigenous people reconnect with their culture.

“What we want to do is provide services that are culture based,” she said. “We’ve seen some people who smudge, and they get really emotional, and so they feel there is a connection that they are missing… so we’ve seen a lot of emotions when we do bring these services to the people.”

Daniels says all the southern Alberta Nations are represented at the event, including the Samson First Nation from the Ponoka area.

“All Treaty areas are in here, and one day in the future, what I would like to see is our own Indigenous shelters and detox center, just for our own Indigenous people that they can run to so they don’t have to be displaced into in the city streets,” she said.