Food settler colonialism: Heather Elliott, ‘Unsettling Narratives: Settler Colonization in Food Movements on Turtle Island’, Sessions Sociologiques, 10, 1, 2020, pp. 51-62 | settler colonial studies blog

Food settler colonialism: Heather Elliott, ‘Unsettling Narratives: Settler Colonization in Food Movements on Turtle Island’, Sessions Sociologiques, 10, 1, 2020, pp. 51-62

09Feb21

Excerpt: Food Secure Canada (FSC) is the largest alliance of food movement actors in Canada and its biannual
Assembly is the largest food movement event in the country. Since its formation in 2001, FSC has
prioritized building relationships with Indigenous peoples by, for example, convening an Indigenous
Circle, facilitating significant participation of Indigenous communities in the 2012 People’s Food Policy
Project and ensuring strong Indigenous representation at its Assemblies. Nevertheless, at FSC’s most
recent Assembly (November, 2018), a number of Indigenous people and people of colour walked out
of the final day’s activities, asserting that FSC has not done enough to address their concerns and their
specific approaches. This situation reveals the tensions between settler-led2 food movements on the
one hand, and Indigenous efforts for food sovereignty on the other that co-exist with long-term
collaborations. This paper attempts to tease out some of the sometimes glaring, sometimes insidious
ways that food movements have struggled to meaningfully integrate Indigenous concerns, and offer
insight on possible ways forward.

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