Sharing culture and heritage through food at First Peoples Festival of Montreal

The International First People’s Festival is back in Montreal with its 33rd edition, and it has activities for all, including one with Chef Jacques Wasto from the Abenakis First Nations. His main goal is to educate Montrealers of his heritage and culture through family recipes.

“We’re pleased to share our culture and let people discover our culture,” says Wasto.

Wasto, is the owner of Sagamité Wasto a culinary First Nations food distributor. The culinary heritage, something he says needs to be discovered in Quebec.

Jacques Wasto holding a serving of La Sagamité Watso soup (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)

“It’s something that needs to be discovered because we’ve been sharing this land for the last 400 years and few people know about our culinary arts, about what we eat.” Wasto adds there is very little known about the culture and communities of the First Nations, “there are 11 First Nations in the province of Quebec. So few people know that there are 11 First Nations and of these 11 First Nations, we each have our own language, our culture, our history and our foods. So it’s important to share”

“It’s a fun-loving culture,” says Wasto as he dishes a serving of La Sagamité Watso a soup made from 9 varieties of beans, hominy corn, a secret blend of spices and good fresh vegetables, all garnished with red deer meat from the Dix–cors farm in Pierreville.

Sharing culture and heritage through food at the First Peoples Festival of Montreal (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)

“The soup that we’re serving was called at a certain point during my mother’s and my grandmother’s time was called a survival soup,” at that time Wasto says First Nations communities were poor, “so this soup helped to sustain our community,” he says.

For those who were able to try the soup, they wanted to go back for seconds.

Brigitte Desouza who stumbled across the sampling says “It’s very, very good. It’s delicious. It’s tasty.” She also recognizes the importance of being able to try the cuisine. “It’s very important…they have a lot to share with us, and we have to learn, things about them and their culture.”

Sharing culture and heritage through food at the First Peoples Festival of Montreal (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)

As for the reason Wasto believes it’s important to continue? He says, it’s a chance to make people happy.

“We’re sharing something unique that if you never tasted before it makes you feel happy, and it uplifts the spirit, that really is my reward for sharing my food.”

Wasto will be located in Le Central in Downtown Montreal, until Monday. The festival runs until August 17th.