Ojibway cuisine more than Kraft Dinner

Richard Wagamese
Richard Wagamese

By Richard Wagamese

There’s something to be said for the old phrase “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” It had to have been a Native person who came up with that. At my age there’s a definite plethora of bannock bellies among my First Nations pals.

We like to eat. Many times at gatherings and feasts I’ve watched as Native men piled on the food. The two-tier system seems most popular; you can just never seem to get enough on one go round on the plate. Heapin’ helpin’ is a First Nations phrase. It must be.

There are a lot of people who have asked me over the years “What do Native people eat?” Well, aside from the potential for great one-liners in response to that question we do have a definite cuisine. Just thinking of it makes me hungry.

For me there’s nothing like a can of Spam mixed with eggs, canned potatoes, a hunk piece of bannock slathered with jam and a mug of campfire coffee with the grounds still in, cooked over an open flame. Mmm. You’re getting awful close to the path to my heart with that meal.

Even if there was it something you could offer that would come close to that it still wouldn’t measure up to bannock made on a stick that you shred off bite by bite and dip in a roiling stew made of rabbit, leeks, corn, potatoes and squash. That’s just the plain truth of things.

Well, a pickerel packed in clay and tossed into the fire comes awful close as long as there’s greens and wild mushrooms tossed over a flame and then blueberries all washed down with dark Ojibway tea and then a smoke to share with the Spirits might just come close.

But then again, a nice moose rubaboo properly done with flour, water and maple syrup with bannock for dipping is hard to resist at the best of times provided there’s a cob of corn roasted on the fire with the husk still on and water from the river, cold and rich with the mineral taste that reminds you of rocks and lakes upstream.

Yes. We have a cuisine beyond Kraft Dinner and sardines. The longer you’re away from it the more you remember that the way to an Ojibway man’s heart isn’t through his stomach – it’s through his recollections.

Richard Wagamese is Ojibway from Wabasemong First Nation in Northwestern Ontario.  His latest book, Him Standing, is available in stores now.  Trade Paperback  ISBN 1459801768