Indigenous Archives - Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

A gross infringement of food sovereignty and basic rights

April 26, 2015 by Food Sovereignty

Media release 26 April 2015

The Western Australian Government’s proposed closure of remote Aboriginal communities

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), supported by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), express our strongest opposition to the forced removal of Aboriginal peoples from their communities, as proposed by the Western Australian government.

Such a removal would infringe fundamental human rights, and further diminish the food sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Government in breach of obligations

ABS data released this week indicates that more than one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in a household which had run out of food and was unable to buy more, a rate of food insecurity six times higher than the rest of the Australian population. AFSA supports the combined call by the Public Health Association of Australia, Red Cross and Dietitians Association of Australia for increased resourcing of nutrition and food supply strategies to respond to this crisis.

This appalling rate of food insecurity shows that our Federal and state governments are in breach of their obligations to ensure that all Australians, and especially the most disadvantaged, enjoy the fundamental human right to adequate and culturally appropriate food, guaranteed by Article 10 of the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Australia is a signatory to that Covenant and has ratified it. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples outlines a range of rights of indigenous peoples which would be contravened by the forced removal of Aboriginal peoples from their communities and lands.

We believe it is a fundamental and ongoing act of reconciliation, respect and celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their culture that as a nation we support their right to remain on their traditional lands. This is where they are able to maintain the crucial relationships to the land, animals, plants, and ancestral and spiritual beings.

We acknowledge also that language, culture, spirituality, health and wellbeing and nutritional and medicinal knowledge are inextricably linked to peoples’ traditional lands and are strengthened, deepened and replenished by being on their traditional lands.

In Western Australia, dispossession continues

The history of colonisation of Australia demonstrates that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are removed from their traditional lands there is a loss of skills and knowledge of the nutritional, medicinal and spiritual properties of traditional foods and the language to describe them. These processes of removal constitute a form of cultural genocide. It is unacceptable for this to happen yet again.

In the historical frame of the last 230 years, the current proposal by the WA government to remove basic services and infrastructure support from some remote Aboriginal communities is, whatever the rhetorical and ‘pragmatic’ justifications, yet another dispossession of both people, and the country to which they belong and owe the duty of custodianship.

With rapidly declining soil health and water availability in Australia, the living bank of sustainable land management knowledge held by Aboriginal people who have been able to maintain their language, culture and connection to country is an irreplaceable resource, not just to the people themselves, but to the whole nation. The impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives that have occurred through colonisation mean that remaining knowledge and skills are vulnerable to loss. Closing remote Aboriginal communities would all but guarantee that loss.

Should the Western Australian government proceed with the closure of remote communities it would set a disturbing precedent for the denial by governments of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders rights across Australia to remain on their traditional lands. Such action would also have broader implications for infrastructure in rural and remote areas of Australia particularly regarding critical issues such as road maintenance and health services which are shared by all.

A better way forward

What is required of our governments are responses to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples human rights which are driven not by governments but by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.

AFSA calls on the Western Australian government to confirm that no remote Aboriginal communities will be stripped of essential service and infrastructure supports.

The reoccurring failures of governments to adequately and consistently respect and uphold Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to food sovereignty and food security is reflected in the lack of national, coordinated policy, funding and practice regarding food sovereignty and food security.

We call on governments at all levels to come together as a matter of urgency to develop in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities, health and community sector peak bodies and other key stakeholders, a policy framework, funding commitments and national action plan for food sovereignty and food security.

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About the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance and food sovereignty

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) is working towards a fair, diverse and democratic food system for the benefit of all Australians. We are a civic organisation of Australian producers, communities, organisations and individuals committed to upholding the rights of peoples to food sovereignty.

Food sovereignty asserts the right of peoples to nourishing and culturally appropriate food produced and distributed in ecologically sound and ethical ways and their right to collectively determine their own food and agriculture systems.

The degree to which peoples experience food sovereignty has a direct bearing on their food security. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The greater peoples’ food sovereignty, the greater the level of control they have over their food choices and the sources of their food.

Contact:

Clare Richards, National Committee member for North Australia, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance:

Mobile: 0409 944 136
Email: clare@clareskitchen.com

Michael Moore, CEO, Public Health Association of Australia:

Mobile: 0417 249 731

[button_link url="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MR-WA-community-closures-26april15.pdf" target="" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick="”]Download media release (pdf 141kB)[/button_link]

Food is Sacred

March 16, 2014 by

There is a seventh pillar of food sovereignty that has been adopted in Canada and this should be discussed here in Australia with our indigenous friends.

The seventh pillar — Food is Sacred — was added by members of the Indigenous Circle during the People’s Food Policy process. It asserts:

recognises that food is a gift of life, and not to be squandered
asserts that food cannot be commodified.

It is hard to fault the logic of this assertion that food is sacred as the giver of life, and we will enjoy engaging and reaching common ground on this seventh pillar over the coming months.

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SEVEN PILLARS OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

[button_link url="http://foodsecurecanada.org/who-we-are/what-food-sovereignty" target="blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=""]Source: Food Secure Canada[/button_link]

The first six pillars were developed at the International Forum for Food Sovereignty in Nyéléni, Mali, in 2007. The seventh pillar – Food is Sacred - was added by members of the Indigenous Circle during the People’s Food Policy process.

1. FOCUSES ON FOOD FOR PEOPLE

Puts people’s need for food at the centre of policies
Insists that food is more than just a commodity

2. BUILDS KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Builds on traditional knowledge
Uses research to support and pass this knowledge to future generations
Rejects technologies that undermine or contaminate local food systems

3. WORKS WITH NATURE

Optimizes the contributions of ecosystems
Improves resilience

4. VALUES FOOD PROVIDERS

Supports sustainable livelihoods
Respects the work of all food providers

5. LOCALIZES FOOD SYSTEMS

Reduces distance between food providers and consumers
Rejects dumping and inappropriate food aid
Resists dependency on remote and unaccountable corporations

6. PUTS CONTROL LOCALLY

Places control in the hands of local food providers
Recognizes the need to inhabit and to share territories
Rejects the privatization

7. FOOD IS SACRED

Recognizes that food is a gift of life, and not to be squandered
Asserts that food cannot be commodified

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Indigenous Food Sovereignty—Canada

October 28, 2010 by Food Sovereignty

One fast-developing area of Food Sovereignty is indigenous food sovereignty, especially in Canada. In March 2008 the British Columbia Working Group released the final report of their Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty.

AFSA had provided an excerpt for download as a PDF file:

WGIFS Final Report 2 March 2008

In October 2009 the International Indian Treaty Council published a summary leaflet, "Food Sovereignty and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples". AFSA had provided the leaflet for download as a PDF file:

Indigenous Food Sovereignty 9 October 2009

The Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS) (Bristish Columbia) has recently launched its website—Indigenous Food Systems Network

The WGIFS identifed four key principles underpinning Indigenous Food Sovereignty:

Sacredness – Food is a gift from the Creator; we have a sacred responsibility to nurture healthy, interdependent relationships with the land, plants and animals that provide us with our food.
Self-determination - The ability to respond to our own needs for safe, healthy, culturally adapted Indigenous foods - the ability to make decisions over the amount and quality of food we hunt, fish, gather, grow and eat. Freedom from dependence on grocery stores or corporately controlled food production and distribution in market economies.
Participatory - An action that is ultimately based on the day to day practice of maintaining our traditional food harvesting strategies and practices for the benefit of present and future generations. A cultural strategy that must be practiced at all of the individual, family and community levels.
Policy - A strategy for influencing provincial, national and international policies that are negatively impacting traditional land and food systems