Food is Life: Why Evaluators Should Care About Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Indigenous food sovereignty is much more than a question of food security. It is a movement for self-determination, cultural renewal, and ecological balance. At its heart lies a simple truth: food is sacred. It connects people to land, ancestors, and future generations. To understand Indigenous food sovereignty is to understand how Indigenous peoples define, sustain, and protect our own food systems according to our cultural values, ecological knowledge, and spiritual relationships with the natural world.

As described by the Indigenous Food Systems Network, food sovereignty rests on four interconnected principles:

• Sacred Responsibility – Food is a gift, not a commodity. Communities hold a duty to sustain relationships with the land, waters, and beings that provide nourishment.
• Participatory Practice – Hunting, fishing, gathering, and cultivation are living forms of knowledge that keep ecosystems and cultures vibrant.
• Self-Determination – Indigenous peoples have the inherent right to decide what they eat and how it is produced, free from colonial or industrial systems.
• Policy Transformation – True sovereignty requires embedding Indigenous values in laws and governance related to agriculture, fisheries, and health.

These principles reveal that food is far more than a means of survival; it is a foundation for cultural continuity, wellbeing, and environmental stewardship.

From Food Security to Food Sovereignty
​Mainstream notions of “food security” focus on access and supply. Indigenous food sovereignty goes deeper, centring autonomy, identity, and the restoration of relationships disrupted by colonisation. Revitalising māra kai (Māori food gardens) in Aotearoa, seed-saving initiatives among First Nations, and the rematriation of heritage crops all reconnect communities with ancestral knowledge and ecological care.

Why It Matters to Evaluators
​For evaluators, Indigenous food sovereignty offers a living model of systems change. It challenges us to measure success not by yield or income, but by reciprocity, collective wellbeing, and ecological renewal. Evaluating Indigenous food systems means valuing relational accountability—how communities sustain balance, respect, and interconnection. The International Federation of Social Workers highlights this in its call to recognise food sovereignty as a pathway to climate justice and Indigenous self-determination. Evaluators have a key role in documenting how these practices strengthen resilience, restore knowledge, and uphold rights.

Walking Alongside, Not Ahead
​Indigenous food sovereignty invites evaluators to stand in solidarity with communities—not as inspectors, but as witnesses and learners. In doing so, we help ensure that evaluation contributes to life-affirming futures where food, culture, and land are inseparable, and where equity, dignity, and self-determination are the ultimate measures of success.

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Also see the Indigenous Food Sovereignty section in our July-September 2025 newsletter.

Other Reading
​Jernigan, V. B. B., Demientieff, L. X., & Maunakea, A. K. (2023). Food sovereignty as a path to health equity for Indigenous communities: Introduction to the focus issue. Health Promotion Practice, 24(6), 1066–1069. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399231190355

• The authors introduce a special issue on Indigenous food sovereignty and health equity, highlighting community-led initiatives across American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations. It presents a conceptual framework linking food sovereignty, Indigenous knowledge, and decolonizing health systems.

Kesselman, B., & Zukulu, S. (2025). Traditional foodways of the Amadiba: A struggle for Indigenous food sovereignty in Mpondoland, South Africa. Grassroots – Journal of Political Ecology, 32.

• Through fieldwork with the Amadiba community in Mpondoland, the authors document Indigenous foodways grounded in interconnection, sacredness, and collectivism. It shows how the community’s resistance to mining and imposed “development” exemplifies Indigenous food sovereignty in practice—protecting land, culture, and local autonomy in postcolonial South Africa.

Monterrubio-Solís, C., Barreau, A. & Ibarra, J. T. (2023). Narrating changes, recalling memory: accumulation by dispossession in food systems of Indigenous communities at the extremes of Latin America. Ecology and Society, 28(1):3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13792-280103

• The authors examine how Indigenous communities across Latin America use food sovereignty as a form of resistance to extractivism and colonial development models. Drawing on cases from Mexico and the Andes, the authors show how Indigenous agroecological practices, collective governance, and cultural knowledge underpin both food and health autonomy.

Rowe, S., Brady, C., Sarang, R., Wiipongwii, T., Leu, M., Jennings, L., Peterson, T., Boston, J., Roach, B., Phillips, J. & Conrad, Z. (2024). Improving Indigenous Food Sovereignty through sustainable food production: a narrative review. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 8:1341146. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2024.1341146

• The authors examine Indigenous-led food-production initiatives across the United States as pathways to strengthen food sovereignty, health, and community wellbeing. The authors highlight how locally driven projects reconnect people to land, promote intergenerational knowledge exchange, and reduce dependency on colonial food systems.

Ray, L., Burnett, K., Cameron, A., Joseph, S., LeBlanc, J., Parker, B., Recollet, A., & Sergerie, C. (2019). Examining Indigenous food sovereignty as a conceptual framework for health in two urban communities in Northern Ontario, Canada. Global Health Promotion, 26(Suppl. 3), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975919831639

• The authors explore how Indigenous Food Sovereignty (IFS) can serve as a framework for Indigenous health promotion, particularly in urban contexts. Working with two Indigenous-led health centres in Northern Ontario, the authors show how land, culture, and self-determination are integral to wellbeing.

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