Settler colonialism must be viewed as an ongoing structure of domination and transformation, hand-in-hand with other processes that marginalise indigenous communities globally including capitalism, imperialism and globalisation. The notion of food sovereignty is essential to understand the relationship of settler colonies with food systems. Food sovereignty is based upon the principle that access to food is a human right, focusing on the rights of people to distribute, produce and consume food. Particularly with regards to food security, holistic wellbeing outcomes such as a connection to land, the transmission of traditional knowledge are key. In contexts of indigenous communities in particular, the rights of indigenous peoples to determine culturally appropriate food systems, manage their land ,and be free from inequities in food access are fundamental.
The history of colonial assault on Indigenous livelihoods and dismantled food systems have meant that communities affected by settler colonialism are disproportionately affected by food insecurity, malnutrition and diet-related health outcomes. Colonialism, settler or not, has long used forced starvation against indigenous communities as a tool of oppression. Although diseases, natural disasters and even famine existed prior to colonisation, colonial powers often used prolonged starvation to control populations and acquire land and its resources.. Under colonial rule, Famine was not a result of a lack of food but rather, by the politics of food distribution, embedded in colonial systems across the world.
In Canada, permit systems were used to exclude indigenous populations from the commercial economy until the 1960s, institutionalising hunger to reduce expenses for the colonial government. For over a 100 years, Canada has forcibly taken over the agricultural land of indigenous communities to mass-produce dairy, beef and corn, consequently imposing barriers on Indigenous sources of nutrition. More directly, access to traditional Indigenous foods was further criminalised: through bans on hunting seals, caribou, elk intended to force First Nation, Métis and Inuit peoples to assimilate and become dependent on settler-diets. The Spanish in Mesoamerica began colonial discourse on “right foods” (allegedly superior European foods) and “wrong foods” (allegedly inferior Indigenous foods), spreading ideas that without the “right foods” the European settlers would die, or worse, become like the Indigenous. Infamously in 1845, during the spread of the fungus affecting potato crops in Ireland, millions of pounds worth of livestock, butter, milk, oats, wheat and barley left Irish ports annually for Britain while one and a half million Irish people starved to death. In the United States, several past and present governmental programs have imposed hunger, malnutrition and insecurity to erase Indigenous people and enable settler-colonial occupation of Indigenous territories. For example, the Indian Removal act of 1831 began with the removal of the Choctaw peoples to the West of the continent on the “Trail of Tears” and the Indian Appropriations Act (1850) restricted tribal members to reservations thus disconnecting the Indigenous peoples from their land, food and cultural knowledge. Further, the US government’s treaties with Indigenous peoples had the outward appearance of protecting food systems, but in actuality overlooked and adhered depending on the government’s interests. In what is today Wisconsin, the Sauk and Fox peoples received rations called “articles of subsistence”: “food” that lacked nourishment and were non-traditional and unhealthy. As in Canada, forcing indigenous populations to live on reservations made them dependent on these rations, forcefully disconnecting them from traditional food systems.
It has thus been argued that settler colonialism has manufactured food insecurity as means to attain hegemonic political control. The nutritional colonialism of Indigenous communities restricted subsistence and physical activity and imposed dependence on governmental food sources and disrupting value systems around foodways.
However, these effects of settler-colonialism should not be viewed as incidents of the past in the Americas and Oceania, but rather as forms of ongoing systemic oppression that draw on historical playbooks and continue to operate in contemporary contexts such as Palestine, and other settler colonies. Centuries of food weaponisation have collectively undermined Indigenous food sovereignty, wellbeing and health. Social and health inequalities that arose as a result of historical colonial oppression are perpetuated and over time may even be internationalised into the daily lives of communities. Beyond structural inequalities, the continued effect of historical oppression is evident in the contemporary rates of diet-related diseases in indigenous populations compared to those of non-indigenous populations.
In high-income settler colonies, including Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the US, traditional foods have largely been replaced by highly processed, packaged and energy-dense market foods. Thus resulting in a disproportionate prevalence of diet-related illnesses, such as obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol amongst Indigenous peoples. This systematic oppression is a result of systematic social disadvantage and historical oppression, but is often perceived as the consequence of personal flaws such as laziness, vice or poor-decision making. According to a study on the First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada, government responses focus on individualising the problem rather than acknowledging the larger structural or systemic determinants of food insecurity, such as food deserts, food swamps and economic and policy-driven barriers. Similarly in Australia, policy-makers and politicians’ refusal to acknowledge the connection between colonisation, food security and health outcomes, have meant that the latter are largely inequitable. Beyond physical access, the costs of food in Canada continue to affect Northern Ontario First Nations Reserves disproportionately. The cost of monthly groceries are nearly twice as expensive at a local chain store as compared to one on a reservation. In Aotearoa New Zealand , the food environment is currently dominated by ultra-processed, heavily marketed unhealthy goods in low socio-enomic areas. This disproportionately affects M?ori and Pasifika populations who deal today with higher rates of diet-related diseases including diabetes and obesity– a reality that is compounded by a higher likelihood of living in food swamps. A study in Aotearoa New Zealand demonstrates that food poverty or food insecurity was a “M?ori reality”, where there is also a significant emotional and identity wellbeing as many M?ori are disconnected from their practices of fishing, eeling and hunting. The longing to reconnect with whenua and their traditional food systems of their past have long been hindered by a dependence on the non-M?ori food systems. In the United States structural racism against minorities, including the Indigenous communities are cited as a fundamental cause of health disparities. In a study conducted regarding the COVID-19 pandemic for example, 56% of Indigenous respondents faced food insecurity.
Overall, in order to understand food security and health outcomes in settler-colonial settings, it is important to view settler-colonialism as a process rather than an outcome. Settler-colonialism and capitalism still operate hand-in-hand in a systemically racist system that continues to keep Indigenous communities in situations of food insecurity while perpetuating decreased life quality.
Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
- Akshita Anand
