Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Renewal and U.S. Settler Colonialism

Abstract

Indigenous peoples often embrace different versions of the concept of food sovereignty. Yet some of these concepts are seemingly based on impossible ideals of food self-sufficiency. I will suggest in this essay that for at least some North American Indigenous peoples, food sovereignty movements are not based on such ideals, even though they invoke concepts of cultural revitalization and political sovereignty. Instead, food sovereignty is a strategy of Indigenous resurgence that negotiates structures of settler colonialism that erase the ecological value of certain foods for Indigenous peoples.

Keywords: food sovereignty, food justice, environmental justice, climate justice, indigenous peoples, indigenous foods, first foods