Last Updated on June 4, 2019
Our health is directly related to the food we eat, but what are the health outcomes of traditional foods? In this new article series, Intercontinental Cry will explore the relationship between Indigenous peoples’ foods and their health.
A conventional diet is increasingly recognized for its negative impact on public health, giving rise to chronic problems including obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Can Indigenous communities restore public health by returning to traditional foods? How are Indigenous people, communities and nations reclaiming their traditional foods and incorporating these foods into their diets? What are the specific plants and animals that Indigenous Peoples consume and what are their methods for processing and preparing them? By restoring traditional food systems, how has individual and public health been affected?
These are just some of the questions we will venture to answer in Food as Medicine, a new 12-part article series that explores the relationship between Indigenous peoples’ foods and their health.
The new series is made possible by grant from the Elna Vesara Ostern Fund that was awarded to the Center for World Indigenous Studies by the California Community Foundation.
It will provide many unique insights surrounding indigenous food ways and the positive and negative health effects of the food that Indigenous families eat, or don’t eat often enough.
Journalists from all corners of the globe are invited to send Intercontinental Cry their pitches for this series.
All pitches will be reviewed, but we have a fixed monthly budget that allows us to accept only one pitch per month starting in October 2018. Pitches must be sent by the 15th of each month.
Journalists will be paid a fixed rate of CAD$200 for completed stories that meet the following requirements:
*Must be 2000 words in length.
*Must include at least 2 interviews from the community.
*Must be accompanied by at least 5 digital images including a location map.
*One recipe may also be included (optional)
We also ask that journalists acquire FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent) from relevant indigenous authorities to publish the story on Intercontinental Cry.
Pitches should be sent to IC’s Editor in Chief, John Ahni Schertow, intercontinentalcry@gmail.com
Intercontinental Cry (IC) is a non-profit newsroom that produces public-interest journalism centered on Indigenous rights and the environment. A project of the Center for World Indigenous Studies (a US-based 501(C)(3) founded in 1979), IC is led by journalists and academics of Indigenous descent.
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