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