Understanding Indigenous Food Sovereignty through an Indigenous Research Paradigm

The Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) movement offers insight into food-related challenges that confront Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The philosophy of IFS is holistic in nature and sees food as encompassing all facets of being – the mental, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual. Thirty-two interviews were conducted across western Canada to better understand Indigenous food sovereignty practices. Indigenous research methodologies offer further insight into IFS studies, in part, through an epistemology centered on experiential knowledge, relational accountability, respect, and reciprocity. The values of these methodologies are reflected in this research regarding IFS, and provide an important and appropriate context for this work. In particular, metaphor, as a research tool, helps to further the understanding of IFS by acknowledging the harmony that can and should exist between food and nature