Growing Beyond Nutrition:

Abstract

Many Indigenous communities in Canada experience disproportionate rates of food insecurity and diet-related diseases impacted by historic and ongoing colonialism. Barriers to health and wellbeing associated with ongoing colonial processes also have resulted in inequities for Indigenous peoples within the criminal justice system. A prison garden program in British Columbia, Canada, attempts to address inmate rehabilitation and Indigenous community food insecurity by supporting incarcerated men to grow and subsequently donate organic produce to rural and remote Indigenous communities. Qualitative research undertaken to study program impacts shows that the focus on food security for Indigenous communities, while important, does not take into account wider contexts of colonialism and the importance of access to land, resources and rights inherent in food sovereignty. The study findings signal the limitations of programs and research that focus solely on food security for Indigenous peoples, and outlines how accounting for the colonial context can emphasize the critical role of Indigenous values, community strengths, and priorities for fostering food sovereignty and health.

Gardening in Ashes: The Possibilities and Limitations of Gardening to Support Indigenous Health and Well-Being in the Context of Wildfires and Colonialism

“…In the aftermath of the fires, the importance of relationship to support foodways and land sovereignty highlighted the potentials of gardening, not as small backyard plot, but as responsibility. While there is a great deal of literature on gardening to support Indigenous food security, a large portion is focused on diabetes and other diet-related diseases [57], without attention to the underlying colonial context and responsibilities [20,112,113].…”

“…I was spending time in the Tsilhqot'in First Nation working on a community-based research project focused on healing and reciprocity for Indigenous Peoples who are incarcerated. In a nutshell, this project, led by Dr. Helen Brown in the University of British, School of Nursing, focuses on learning about a federal corrections initiative where incarcerated people build and gift things to the Nation, including the growing and gifting of organic produce (and more information can be found elsewhere [57,95]). Through our ongoing relationship building, a foundational part of community-based research, we ended up walking into this beautiful, colorful classroom in one of the Tsilhqot'in communities, to spend some time with kids, and there you were.…”

“…While gardening can provide increased access to fresh vegetables, the potentials of individual and community gardens need to be taken into account within the context of historic and ongoing colonialism, and the correlated barriers to health and wellbeing facing many communities. Additionally, the concept of gardening within academic literature is largely Eurocentric, rarely accounting for ancestral and ongoing Indigenous gardening and food practices and the inextricable linkages between food, identity and belonging that have supported Indigenous Peoples for millennia [57]. In this context, Euro-Western understandings of gardening have flattened and simplified the complex relationality fundamental to many Indigenous foodways, resulting in an often-narrow focus on growing fruits and vegetables as a means to support food security, without addressing the wider holism called for across Indigenous health and food systems [1,2,4,10,57].…”

“…Additionally, the concept of gardening within academic literature is largely Eurocentric, rarely accounting for ancestral and ongoing Indigenous gardening and food practices and the inextricable linkages between food, identity and belonging that have supported Indigenous Peoples for millennia [57]. In this context, Euro-Western understandings of gardening have flattened and simplified the complex relationality fundamental to many Indigenous foodways, resulting in an often-narrow focus on growing fruits and vegetables as a means to support food security, without addressing the wider holism called for across Indigenous health and food systems [1,2,4,10,57]. As the impacts of colonialism and extractive capitalism continue, many communities are working to revitalize language, foodways, and social structures that support intergenerational knowledge sharing and cultural continuity [58,59], with keen attention paid to the empowerment of children and youth [60], and to the interconnections between individual, community and environmental health [23].…”

Programs Addressing Food Security for First Nations Peoples: A Scoping Review

“…Two reported either community [29,30] or household involvement [32,33] rather than individual participants. Three publications were program evaluations [29,30,35], two were cross-sectional [32,33], two were randomised trials [34,37], one a pre-and postcomparison [36], and one was ethnographic in design [31]. The benefits for the men working were layered, deepening over the time, and influenced by personal histories and contexts.…”