Just outside of Montreal, the Kahnawà:ke community is remembering a powerful source of connection: the land. Founded in 2021, Tkà:nios is a grassroots initiative that’s reconnecting people with food as a pathway back to cultural identity, community wellness, and collective resilience.
“Everything about who we are as Kanien’keha:ka is rooted in food,” says Brooke Rice, one of the initiative’s founders. “Colonial systems severed our relationship with the land, and that disruption affected our health — physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Tkà:nios is about remembering, reclaiming, and creating space for people to reconnect with the land and with each other.”
Food as culture, identity, and healing
Tkà:nios emerged from community conversations during the COVID-19 pandemic, when concerns about food shortages sparked questions about self-sufficiency. Guided by Elders, seed keepers, and medicine women, Tkà:nios set out to strengthen Kahnawà:ke’s foodways and restore knowledge that had sustained their community for generations.
Today, Tkà:nios is evolving into a broader vision for a community food hub where agriculture, education, ceremony, and cultural teachings come together. Plans include a medicine garden, seed storage, food processing spaces, and gathering areas for workshops and ceremonies.
“It’s not just about growing food,” Rice explains. “It’s about cultivating belonging, memory, and healing.”
This vision closely aligns with Kahnawà:ke’s Community Wellness Plan, which recognizes environmental stewardship, land, and food sovereignty as key determinants of Indigenous health. By strengthening local food production and traditional food practices, Tkà:nios is helping transform those priorities into lived experience through its educational programs, seed saving, cultural ceremonies, and intergenerational workshops.
For the Medavie Foundation, the initiative represents a shared belief in holistic, community-led approaches to health and wellbeing.
"The Tkà:nios team is actively reversing the harm caused by colonization, which is no small feat,” says Gillian Aitken, Community Impact Specialist with the Medavie Foundation. “It's been an honour to witness how, through the practice and sharing of ancestral knowledge, Tkà:nios is caring for the whole person. I'm struck by how the work of remembering Haudenosaunee foodways instills community members with a renewed sense of purpose and how that in itself is life supporting."
Growing belonging across generations
Tkà:nios places intergenerational knowledge-sharing at the heart of its work. Elders guide workshops , grounding every activity in traditional teachings. Youth learn through hands-on experiences like planting, harvesting, seed saving, and preparing medicines from native plants.
“It’s inspiring to see young people out in the gardens with our Elders,” Brooke says. “They’re learning how to grow food, but also how to live in balance and carry forward the teachings that keep our culture alive.”
For many community members, this reconnection is deeply personal. “Tkà:nios was a healing point for me,” shares Tekarahkwake Deom. “It was the start of me being able to feel like I’m at home. I feel like I can really provide for the community and help give back in a meaningful way.”
Making connections
Community meals, seed gatherings, and hands-on learning activities provide spaces where people connect and share stories. In doing so, Tkà:nios helps address the impacts of social isolation and intergenerational trauma while cultivating resilience.
As Tkà:nios continues to work toward their vision for a community food hub, support from the Medavie Foundation will help enable Tkà:nios to evolve into an intergenerational model of care, building on milestones like the construction of a corn crib for drying and storing harvested corn, moose hunting and hide tanning for the wellness gathering, and the hiring of two part-time seasonal staff to help provide stability as the project expands.
For the Tkà:nios team, the ultimate goal is sustainability — not just of food, but of relationships, culture, and health.
“Our hope is that our children and grandchildren will grow up with a vibrant food hub where they can learn, share, and thrive together,” Brooke says. “We want to create a future where we can be self-sufficient and care for one another.”
While deeply rooted in Kahnawà:ke, the impact of Tkà:nios reaches beyond the community. By reclaiming traditional food systems, the initiative contributes to cultural renewal, environmental stewardship, and community vitality. It’s a reminder that food is not only about sustenance, but also identity and connection.