Wild rice fight: cottagers versus Indians - NOW Toronto Magazine - Think Free

5.11.15

Wild rice fight: cottagers versus Indians - NOW Toronto Magazine - Think Free: It’s a battle of aesthetics versus culture, native subsistence over property rights, Muskoka chairs over Indigenous pilaf. At its heart is a fundamentally different view of what is important on a cultural level.

The villain in this tale, if there is a villain, is James Whetung of the Curve Lake First Nation who, for the past several years has been accused of seeding the shoreline up and down the lake with wild rice. And then harvesting the crop along with the help of native folks from a number of nearby Aboriginal communities.

Why? Why do Italians grow grapes and the French make cheese? Maybe it’s genetically- programmed. Wild rice, or manomin in Ojibway, is actually a grain that has since time immemorial been a staple of First Nations diets. Most indigenous gatherings would not be complete without one to three wild rice casseroles at the centre of the potluck table.