Background

Food Sovereignty

The Indigenous Food Systems Resilience project identifies four key principles of Indigenous food sovereignty:

1. Sacred or divine sovereignty, which includes the right to food and the responsibility of interdependent relationships with the land and our nonhuman relatives.
2. Participation by individuals, families, communities, and regions on a day-to-day basis.
3. Self-determination in accessing healthy, culturally adapted Indigenous foods.
4. Policy reform to reconcile Indigenous values with colonial legal and economic structures.

Each community can define the specifics of what food sovereignty means to them. For example, “the Menominee Nation describes food sovereignty as living our traditional Menominee ways, identity, values and relationships to provide a tribally sustained community food system for future generations.”

Regardless of the precise definition, Tribal communities in Wisconsin are engaging in many innovative efforts to transform food systems and improve community access to healthy and culturally appropriate foods.

Project Background

Before the arrival of European settlers, Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America) maintained thriving food systems that included hunting, gathering, fishing, and agriculture. In the process of European colonization, settlers sought to destroy Indigenous food systems as a method of control and forced assimilation. Despite the legacy of this violence on Indigenous communities’ access to food, health, and right to self-determination, Indigenous communities have been resilient in sustaining their food systems and cultural lifeways. Indigenous food sovereignty efforts are increasingly urgent in the face of environmental challenges such as climate change that threaten seasonal and subsistence practices and disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

Within this context, our project seeks to support sustaining and broadening food sovereignty in partnership with Tribal communities. Our team includes collaborators from five Tribal partner organizations in Wisconsin and more than a dozen UW–Madison departments. The project’s Tribal Advisory Committee provides guidance on the design and goals of the project. The committee oversees data ownership and sovereignty and ensures that education and outreach efforts are culturally appropriate.

The project is currently funded by a four-year grant (2023–2026) from the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The institute is part of a broader Institute for Rural Partnerships housed at UW–Madison, Auburn University, and the University of Vermont and funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The institute aims to promote equitable, resilient, and prosperous food and agricultural systems and expanded opportunities for rural community development.