LibGuides: Indigenous Studies: Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Finding Resources at OC Library

Keyword Search
Subject Headings

IMPORTANT: the dominant structure for organizing information is from a western perspective, for this reason you may need to use outdated (sometimes offensive) terminology to find resources related to Indigenous peoples; please contact us if you'd like assistance navigating this.

Combine keywords related to the concept of Indigenous identity with keywords related to your area of interest.

For example:

Indigenous	Aboriginal	"First Nations"
Inuit	Métis	"Indians of North America"
Indian	Native	Name of Nation or Community (e.g. Secwépemc)

AND

"Food security"	"Food sovereignty" or "Food reclamation"	"Food insecurity"
"Traditional food" or "Country food"	"Food policy"	"Food systems"
Colonialism	"Food ways"	"Sustainable living"

Search Tips:

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase (e.g. "food security").
Use an asterisk to search for words with the same stem (e.g. sovereign* retrieves sovereign, sovereignty, sovereignties).
Terminology changes over time. You many need to search for alternative spellings of a word, for example: Sto:lo, Stó:lô, Staulo, Stahlo or you may need to search for alternate words, for example: Kwakiutl/Kwakwaka'wakw or Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth

Subject headings are a tool designed to help researchers find similar materials. These are only some examples of the many subject headings that Okanagan College Library uses. Spend a few minutes exploring them when you find a book in the catalogue that supports your research.

Search by Subject Terms

Indians of North America -- Food
Nutrition, Foods and food supply
Cultural resurgence
Indigenous peoples' health

Indigenous Rights

A Guide to Aboriginal Harvesting Rights
[Aboriginal Legal Aid in BC, 2017]
First Nations Fishing Rights - Fact Sheet
[AFN, 2018]
R. v. Sparrow
[Supreme Court of Canada, 1990.] "The Supreme Court ruled that First Nations have an Aboriginal right, as defined in the Constitution, to fish for food, social and ceremonial purposes and that right takes priority over all others, after conservation." (source)

Ways Colonialism Interrupts Indigenous Foodways

The History of Food in Canada is the History of Colonialism
[The Walrus, 2019]
Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942–1952
Between 1942 and 1952, some of Canada’s leading nutrition experts, in cooperation with various federal departments, conducted an unprecedented series of nutritional studies of Aboriginal communities and residential schools. This article explores these studies and experiments, in part to provide a narrative record of a largely unexamined episode of exploitation and neglect by the Canadian government.
Transforming Indigenous Foodways
[2014] Two talks provide insights into "ways in which settler-colonialism has transformed Indigenous foodways." Brittany Luby examines the unintended impacts of industrial development on Anishinaabe foodways and infant feeding practices in the Treaty 3 area. Beverly Soloway explores the ways in which the 17th century arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company in the far north and the introduction of a British planted-food model disrupted Indigenous plant foodways.

Clearing the Plains
Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day.
Fish, Law, and Colonialism: The Legal Capture of Salmon in British Columbia
Recounts the human conflict over fish and fishing in British Columbia and of how that conflict was shaped by law. Through detailed case studies of the conflicts over fish weirs on the Cowichan and Babine rivers, the author describes the evolving legal apparatus that dispossessed Aboriginal peoples of their fisheries.
Indigenous Writes
Chapter 23: From Hunters to Farmers: Indigenous Farming on the Prairies
Chelsea Vowel, legal scholar, teacher, and intellectual, opens an important dialogue about concepts and the wider social beliefs associated with the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada.

Featured Videos

Gather
[Streaming Video, 74 min] Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.
Webinar: Decolonizing the Land and Food System: Indigenous Resilience in Times of Crisis
[UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, 62 minutes] Learn about how the compounded crises of climate change and COVID-19 have widened the inequalities that exist in our already unequal food system. Decolonizing the land and food system is thus a critical strategy for putting economies of solidarity into action.
Okimah
[NFB Streaming Video, 51 minutes] This documentary focuses on the goose hunt, a ritual of central importance to the Cree people of the James Bay coastal areas. Not only a source of food, the hunt is also used to transfer Cree culture, skills, and ethics to future generations.

Featured Books

Globalization and Food Sovereignty
In recent years, food sovereignty has emerged as a way of contesting corporate control of agricultural markets in pursuit of a more democratic, decentralized food system. With perspectives drawn from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia, Globalization and Food Sovereignty is the first comparative collection to focus on food sovereignty activism worldwide.
Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States
Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted indigenous communities' ability to control their own food systems. This volume explores the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States, and asks whether and how it might be achieved and sustained.
Social Ecological Diversity and Traditional Food Systems
This book draws on world-wide experiences and valuable lessons to highlight community-ecosystem interactions and the role of traditional knowledge in sustaining biocultural resources through community-based adaptations.

Featured Cookbooks

Featured Articles

"The Old Foods are the New Foods!"
Joseph, L., & Turner, N. J. (2020). “The Old Foods Are the New Foods!”: Erosion and Revitalization of Indigenous Food Systems in Northwestern North America. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4.
Decolonizing Diet: Healing by Reclaiming Traditional Indigenous Foodways
Bodirsky, M. & Johnson, J. (2008). Decolonizing diet: Healing by reclaiming traditional Indigenous foodways. Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 1(1).
Food Sovereignty Indicators for Indigenous Community Capacity Building and Health
Blue Bird Jernigan, V., Maudrie, T. L., Nikolaus, C. J., Benally, T., Johnson, S., Teague, T., Mayes, M., Jacob, T., & Taniguchi, T. (2021). Food Sovereignty Indicators for Indigenous Community Capacity Building and Health. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5.
An Indigenous food sovereignty initiative is positively associated with well-being and cultural connectedness in a survey of Syilx Okanagan adults in British Columbia, Canada
Blanchet, R., Batal, M., Johnson-Down, L., Johnson, S., Okanagan Nation Salmon Reintroduction Initiatives, Louie, C., Terbasket, E., Terbasket, P., Wright, H., & Willows, N. (2021). An Indigenous food sovereignty initiative is positively associated with well-being and cultural connectedness in a survey of Syilx Okanagan adults in British Columbia, Canada. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1–12.
Supporting food security for Indigenous families through the restoration of Indigenous foodways
Richmond, C., Kerr, R. B., Neufeld, H., Steckley, M., Wilson, K., & Dokis, B. (2021). Supporting food security for Indigenous families through the restoration of Indigenous foodways. Canadian Geographer, 65(1), 97–109.
Understanding Indigenous Food Sovereignty through an Indigenous Research Paradigm
Martens, T., Cidro, J., Hart, M. A., McLachlan, S. (2016). Understanding Indigenous food sovereignty through an Indigenous research paradigm. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 5(1), 18-37.

Featured Podcasts

All My Relations
March 2, 2019: Food Sovereignty, A Growing Movement
Are you truly sovereign if you can’t feed yourselves? Today we delve into a topic we can all relate to! We all got to eat! But how are we eating, or better, WHAT are we eating? And how has colonization disrupted our relationship with our traditional foods?
Gather: Indigenous Food Sovereignty
Speakers discuss a recent documentary on Native American food sovereignty called “Gather.” (see also: featured videos)
The Native Seed Pod
Celebrates the diversity and beauty of Native seeds, soils, and Indigenous foods. The Native Seed Pod is a fertile place to explore thinking about Indigenous sciences and the physical and poetic seeds needed to renew the health of the Earth at this critical time in history.
Our Foods: Chatting about Métis Food Sovereignty
This podcast looks at what food sovereignty means for the Alberta Métis community.
The Place that Sustains Us
Produced and hosted by members of the Wisahkotewinowak Collective, features conversations around Indigenous food and land sovereignty.
Threshold
Episode: Inuit Food Security, Inuit Sovereignty
In this episode, John Noksana, Carolina Behe, and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq sit down with Threshold producers Amy Martin and Nick Mott to discuss Inuit food security and Inuit sovereignty in the North.
Toasted Sister: Radio about Native American Food
After contact, Indigenous foodways and knowledge were devastated, nearly destroyed and replaced with foods that are far from the people. Andi Murphy talks to Native chefs and foodies about what Indigenous cuisine is, where it comes from, where it’s headed and how it’s used to connect them and their communities to their origins and traditions.

Other Resources

BC Food Security Gateway
An online resource that provides BC communities with up-to-date food security information.
First Nations Traditional Food Fact Sheets [FNHA]
Food Secure Canada
A pan-Canadian alliance of organizations and individuals working together to advance food security and food sovereignty through three interlocking goals: zero hunger, healthy and safe food, and sustainable food systems.
From Garden Warriors to Good Seeds: Indigenizing the Local Food Movement
Statistics Canada: Harvesting Activities among First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit: Time trends, barriers and associated factors
Indigenous Food Network Systems
The IFSN website is designed to allow individuals and groups involved with Indigenous food related action, research, and policy reform to network and share relevant resources and information
Indigenous Food Sovereignty Case Study [UBC]
North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems
Dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.
Nourish: The future of food in health care
Resource library includes reports, tools and information to help you reimagine food in health care. Includes revitalizing native foodways, traditional plant foods of Indigenous Peoples, conversations on Indigenous food sovereignty and more.
Wild Salmon Caravan
The main purpose of the Wild Salmon Caravan is to build capacity of coalitions and campaigns that link Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, artists, food systems networks, individuals, organizations, and communities who are working to protect, conserve and restore wild salmon and its habitat in the Fraser Basin and Salish Seas corridor.