Labrador Current Foodways
Fogo Island Arts
210 Main Street, Joe Batt’s Arm
A0G 2X0
Canada

Inaugural recipients: Marta Arzak, Cooking Sections, L. Sasha Gora, Taus Makhacheva and Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa

This new residency explores the interconnectedness of food with our histories, ecologies, economies, politics, and social worlds. Fogo Island is geographically located within the Labrador Current, a section of the Atlantic being monitored closely by scientists as an indicator of climate change, but also, one which has considerable consequences for the whole of the Atlantic region.

The sub-arctic maritime climate and socio-political history of Fogo Island provide fertile grounds for extensive research and practice related to its foodways. From the early history of the Beothuk people for whom Fogo Island was a key summer fishing and hunting station, to the arrival of settler-colonial populations for the island’s maritime connections, to its development as an outport community of fishermen, to the Canadian government’s 1992 moratorium on cod fishing, the relationship with the plant and animal world has always been at the heart of the island’s identity. Today, with the introduction of moose and caribou from the mainland, farming practices spanning from aquaculture to agriculture, the foraging of local berries reliant on the local bee population—one that is currently free of the mite affecting larger bee populations around the world, and the ongoing importance of fermentation and preservation in the North Atlantic climate, the opportunities for research abound. The relationship with the plant and animal world has always been at the heart of the island’s identity, and the selected residents will be interested in exploring these past and future connections further.