Food sovereignty is considered an essential element for the health of First Nations peoples. It recognises the vital need for self-determination over the food that is available within a community regardless of how that food is sourced. The current research builds on such international best practices, highlighting a nuanced understanding of food sovereignty that is place-based and specific to language and community due to the connections between food, Country and spirituality. Building a strong cultural self-concept, investing in Indigenous knowledges and providing enriching opportunities have all been shown to contribute to normative development, health and wellbeing among Australian First Nations children and communities. Building an understanding of food sovereignty through language is an important addition. In the UN Decade for Indigenous languages, this project innovatively uses an intergenerational model to document foodways and language as cultural heritage artefacts and vehicles for the preservation of biodiversity, sustainable development and health for communities. Food Sovereignty promotes food as a spiritual, cultural, and social right, with clear links to human rights and self-determination.
The aim of this project is to develop a place-based definition of food sovereignty and to co-design a Food Sovereignty Model (FSM) with identified rural and urban Indigenous communities. The model will innovatively draw on Indigenous knowledges to develop this model which will then be used by communities to identify and develop strategies that will build sustainable food systems. This will ultimately lead to locally developed and tailored strategies to foster food sovereignty, and the development of resources that preserve language and cultural foodways that can be integrated into educational curriculum.
This presentation examines the progress to date of working with two diverse First Nations Communities – one urban and one rural, under the auspices of two Community Controlled Health Services. Overall, engaging with both Communities to build a Food Sovereignty Model specific to each Community has been an enriching experience. Challenges, however, have also been present – not from the Community Controlled Health Services or Communities – but from the overarching colonial processes demanded by white institutions such as funding bodies and universities.