Table 1 Learnings from scaling up LC as a participatory approach for action planning in four First Nations contexts: principles to support community-based action planning and implementation

Principle 1: Create safe and ethical spaces for dialog by establishing trust and commitment from the ground up

1.1 Recognize and respect community governance, leadership, and protocols

“Right to land, right to harvest, protocol, how does that work, like one of the circles I remember asking the question- you know teachers were talking about going out and picking soap berries… so then I posed the question, who do you ask to go? How do [you] get out there? Who do you have to ask and what do you have to put into place to take your class and go do that?” [LC participant 11]

“I think there were lots of things that did happen, like, you know, the land recognition at the beginning, and engaging an Elder. I think those pieces, you know, were done well. We did learn from that, but I think in the broadest sense, um, and maybe that's kind of an impossible expectation on my part…” [LC participant 17]

“…the importance of including teachings around protocol if we are going to include traditional foods in a school food program. Food is not just food but also medicine. Chiefs are responsible for managing territories.” [LC facilitator 4]

1.2 Establish project advisory structures to guide and champion community-driven actions, leadership, and partnerships

“So, I think it's just, um, for me personally, really reinforced, the fact that we need to do a really good job, I think, from the very outset of, of projects in really letting the community guide the process, I guess. And be part of the development and I think we think we're doing better at that, but I think we can all do so much better” [LC participant 19]

“communities need to be “on board” perhaps bring together an ethics committee” [Learning circle facilitator 1]

“I’ve been familiar with the [tribal council] for a number of years now, and you know their goals are, you know definitely community benefit oriented. They have a plethora of individuals employed through the [tribal council] that help out with health, education, finance um, and they’re a very large – a corporation. I think the structure mechanism of the [tribal council] is definitely appreciated.”

LC facilitator 3]

“So that would be like one sort of helpful thing. I think um, where I have sort of learned the most in this work is working with local [community] Elders and traditional um, [community] connections – like the connection with the [community] Foods Committee, or these [Indigenous] leadership pieces.” [LC participant 4]

Principle 2: Understand the context for change through community engagement

2.1 Build a shared understanding of values, priorities, and opportunities

“Food is medicine, is tied to the land, is tied to every aspect of the relations. So, you can’t measure it in terms of like its’ health unless the whole like system is changing to foster a deep, healthy vibrancy on sovereign land.” [LC facilitator 4]

2.2 Work within a community’s social, political, and historical context

“Acknowledge the history of appropriation of Indigenous lands for agriculture. All lands that agriculture takes place on [traditional] territory lands that were appropriated by the Canadian or BC government and reallocated or sold to agriculturalists. Furthermore, agriculture in the form that um’shu’wa use is a new introduction in [community], and is seen as more of an um’shu’wa practice.” [LC facilitator 4]

And so, for some of the older generation, the connection to farming is like immediately… traumatizing and brings up these memories of this other time. And so, that is a bit of a barrier there, too because there's like resistance to engage with it because, um, of that history…” [LC participant 13]

2.3 Identify and build on community supports

“the Gitxsan Wellness Model and the relationship of lax yip (of that land, Gitxsan knowledge) and otsin (spirit) to the work of connecting young people to their wellbeing through their relationships with culture, relations, food and land. The Wellness Model encompasses a holistic worldview in which the wilp (mother and relations) and the wilksawitx (father and relations) intersect and overlap with the lax yip and the otisin.” [LC participant 24]

“Each other, share successes and some challenges. We looked at some barriers that we needed to overcome and share, we had a workshop on traditional foods. And what’s really important to keep in mind.” [LC facilitator 1]

Principle 3: Foster relationships to strengthen and sustain impact

3.1 Make connections between people, programs, and processes

“so I think, I think what’s worked really well is having some kind of core people involved right from the start” [LC facilitator 5]

“when we did our community planning, parents and community members suggested we have more traditional foods and more healthy foods. And more local people working to prepare the foods” [LC participant 2]

3.2 Integrate Indigenous worldviews, perspectives, and values

“there’s a fear piece about how to talk about current effects of colonialism without sending non-Indigenous people into this fear reactive, defensive place when it’s maybe something somebody hasn’t talked about. And from other work [community organization] is doing from around the work of internal reflection and dialogue that I feel non-Indigenous people need to do…I really feel like, with reconciliation, there is work that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people need to do.” [LC participant 11]

“There is still a necessity to sort of unpack, for non-indigenous people to kind of like explore those different narrative and unpack that in the sort of messiness of relationships that some of which have sort of existed between Indigenous and non-indigenous people here for hundreds of years.” [LC facilitator 4]

“She’s an Elder within the community who will often come and just keep an eye on things. She used to work in the schools as a teacher for a number of years but I remember her coming in and just kind of sitting, she came in halfway, just kind of sat, watching, and you know someone said oh, “we should ask [Name] about this topic on getting kids to eat healthy” and she just said “a potato is a potato. That doesn’t really matter. Get those kids out of school and on the land. That’s what they need to learn.” [LC facilitator 5]

“Recognize that self-determination is an important or central goal of reconciliation between First Nations and Canadian government. We need to work together to demonstrate that projects need to be centered around Indigenous ways of knowing and adequately support First Nations health and well-being.” [Annual gathering participant]

Principle 4: Reflect and embrace program flexibility to integrate learnings

4.1 Create space for reflection and mutual learnings

“Share teachings so we are able to learn together and be aware. –create space where we can stand in our own truth, be who we are, and be safe there. –openness-non-judgmental atmosphere in order to allow us to learn. –we have to show up with our baskets full (what is my own culture, where do I come from, what is my truth? engaging as people from a place of truth). –we are always teachers, students, and learners. –respectful dialogue among nations-there is always more to learn.” [Annual gathering participant 6]

“I think what I’ve learned through this project, that the main barrier is getting everybody to come together and actually just figure out the details.” [LC participant 25]

“Just to get their experiences- things that worked well, things that didn’t work well when they were engaging with their students. Just to see how much other people are doing. So there is a little bit of solidarity from that to know that like other people are interested in these things and working to do more education around food in schools. So that was really encouraging. So that useful in itself to just have encouragement.” [LC participant 23]

“You know, their own community supports and where their community's at in terms of being able to keep the project sustainable and continue that work, you know, once funding process is done” [LC participant 19]

“So in my view what it needed is a pre-initiative capacity assessment that would chronicle in detail the different levels of capacity or rather the different levels of capacity attainment across different domains of capacity….You’ve got an assessment, you place yourself and there’s some menu of options of this version of the model that would best fit your particular circumstances and then you work through the mechanics of how that would work” [LC participant 18]