This image is an example of some traditional Indigenous food sources
In recognition of the International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples 2025, the Indigenous Commission of the International Federation of Social Workers offers the following statement on the theme, Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination: a pathway for food security and sovereignty.
Standing with Indigenous Peoples for Food Sovereignty
Standing with Indigenous Peoples for Food Sovereignty is a commitment to upholding the inherent right of self-determination regarding their food systems, acknowledging the profound connection between traditional foods, culture, health, and well-being. Across the globe, from the Sami people of Northern Europe to Native Americans in North America, Māori in Aotearoa (New Zealand), and diverse Indigenous communities in the Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Indigenous Peoples have historically sustained themselves through deep, reciprocal relationships with their lands and traditional foods.
Common Themes Contributing to Food Insecurity for Indigenous Peoples
Across diverse Indigenous communities worldwide, several common themes have historically and continue to contribute to food insecurity, often stemming from colonial legacies and external pressures.
- Dispossession and Land Loss: Colonial powers systematically dispossessed Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral territories, destroying traditional food supplies and severing deep cultural connections to the land. This includes deliberate acts like the mass slaughter of buffalo to starve the Lakota people in North America and the ongoing impacts of land grabbing for resource extraction or commercial agriculture around the world. In the African region examples of affected groups include but are not limited to: The San people in Botswana, who were prohibited from hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Baka people in Cameroon, have experienced forced eviction from forests where they gather food. The Ju/’hoansi San people in Namibia, are struggling to access their traditional hunting grounds. And approximately 82,000 Maasai people in Tanzania, were relocated, allegedly on a voluntary basis, a claim disputed by human rights and civil society organizations.
- Disruption of Traditional Food Systems: The introduction of foreign agricultural practices, crops, and livestock, often coupled with policies promoting monoculture or industrial farming, has undermined diverse, sustainable Indigenous foodways.
- Forced Dependency on External Food Sources: Indigenous communities were often forced onto reservations, remote settlements, or urban communities, becoming dependent on government-provided, often nutritionally poor, processed foods. This shift over time has contributed to a rise in diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes, among many Indigenous populations.
- Environmental Degradation and Contamination: Industrial activities like mining and forestry lead to land degradation and water contamination, directly impacting traditional food sources such as fish, wild game, and foraging areas. For the Sami, this affects reindeer pastures and clean water vital for their nomadic lifestyle.
- Impacts of Natural Disasters and Climate Change: Natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods directly destroy crops, homes, and infrastructure, displacing communities and disrupting food supply chains. Climate change further exacerbates these impacts, modifying river flows, sea levels, and weather patterns, which affect traditional fishing grounds and the availability of other traditional foods. In Puerto Rico, natural disasters like hurricanes have severely impacted local food production.
- Economic and Policy Marginalization: Many Indigenous communities face socio-economic barriers, lack of infrastructure, and policies that favor large-scale, corporate food systems over local, Indigenous-led initiatives. This exacerbates food insecurity. In Aotearoa, the high cost of healthy food, a supermarket duopoly, and fragmented policy environments contribute to food insecurity, disproportionately affecting Māori and Pacific households.
- Loss of Traditional Knowledge and Seeds: The disruption of intergenerational knowledge transfer regarding traditional farming, hunting, gathering, and seed-saving practices, often through assimilation policies, has threatened unique agro-biodiversity and food autonomy. In Aotearoa, urban migration has led to a loss of Māori horticultural knowledge and traditional food production, processing, and storing systems.
Examples of Loss of Food Sources
The historical and ongoing challenges have manifested in various forms of food source loss globally. For example,
- North America: The near eradication of buffalo herds by the United States government in the 19th century was a deliberate strategy to starve the Lakota people and force their submission. General George Washington’s “scorched earth” campaign against the Haudenosaunee also aimed to destroy their food supplies.
- Europe: Mining and forestry activities continue to impact reindeer pastures and contaminate water sources, threatening the traditional reindeer herding, fishing, and berry picking practices vital to Sami culture and sustenance.
- Aotearoa: A significant shift from traditional foods and self-sufficiency to Western food sources due to colonization, urbanization, and dispossession of Māori from their land and culture has severely impacted Māori health and well-being.
- Africa: Some Indigenous Tribes are being forced to leave their ancestral lands to make way for wildlife conservation, tourism, and hunting activities. Many of these communities have traditionally survived through hunting, gathering food from forests, or grazing their animals. This creates a complex issue with significant human rights and cultural implications. While some governments proceed with these initiatives, indigenous peoples are often displaced, leading to the loss of their livelihoods.
- Around the world:
Pollution and contamination of environments, coupled with climate change impacts on river flows and sea levels, have affected gathering, harvesting and fishing of traditional foods from forests, rivers, and seas.
Examples of Resilience and Food Sovereignty
Despite these challenges, Indigenous Peoples worldwide are actively reclaiming and revitalizing their food systems, fostering resilience, and promoting self-determination. Globally, Indigenous communities are prioritizing food sovereignty, asserting their right to control their own food and agriculture systems. For example,
- United States:
The Osage Nation has established a Tribal farm to provide nutritious food to children and remote members, while urban community gardens reclaim ancestral knowledge and distribute food to those in need.
- Europe:
The Sami people continue their traditional reindeer herding practices, advocating for their land rights and seeking to protect their natural resources from further exploitation to ensure the health of their herds and traditional foods. They are working to restore clean environments and maintain access to traditional lands for berry picking and fishing.
- Aotearoa:
A leading example of Indigenous food sovereignty is the concept of Hua Parakore. This Kaupapa Māori system for “Kai Atua” (Pure Foods), developed by Māori for Māori, emphasizes food production free from pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and GMOs. Rooted in mātauranga (Māori knowledge), tikanga (customs), and te reo (Māori language), Hua Parakore ensures food is pure, traceable, and produced in harmony with nature. Key initiatives like Te Waka Kai Ora and Papatūānuku Marae are actively enabling Māori food sovereignty, working to restore Māori control over kai and foster community-led food systems based on environmental, social, cultural, and economic sustainability.
A Call to Action for Social Workers
Social workers globally have a critical role to play in standing as allies and supporting Indigenous food sovereignty efforts. This aligns with the core principle of self-determination in social work. By recognizing the interconnectedness of land, culture, and well-being, social workers can contribute to transformative change.
Social workers can:
- Advocate for Access and Equity: Ensure clients have access to healthy, culturally meaningful foods in all settings, including schools, community centres, and Elder housing. Work to address systemic inequities that lead to food insecurity in Indigenous communities, including advocating for income adequacy and dismantling barriers to food access.
- Support Community-Led Initiatives: Advocate for resources and space for urban gardening projects, assist communities in accessing funding for food sovereignty initiatives (e.g., Tribal farms, traditional seed banks), and support self-sufficiency efforts globally.
- Champion Environmental Justice: Advocate for clean environments that support traditional food sources, including protecting water bodies from contamination and removing barriers like dams that impede fish migration. Support Indigenous-led land and water management practices that uphold ecological balance.
- Develop Culturally Responsive Interventions: Design health, nutrition, and social programs that are rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices, promoting well-being through traditional foodways and supporting intergenerational knowledge transfer.
- Influence Policy and Legislation: Engage in policy advocacy to recognize and protect Indigenous land rights, traditional food practices, and seed sovereignty. Challenge policies that favour industrial agriculture over local, sustainable, and Indigenous-led food systems. Support the integration of the right to food into national policies, informed by grassroots Indigenous movements.
- Uplift Indigenous Knowledge: Recognize and value Indigenous traditional knowledges as legitimate and essential forms of expertise. Support Indigenous-led research, education, and initiatives that promote the revitalization, protection, and sustainability of traditional food systems.
By actively supporting these areas, social workers can contribute to truly standing with Indigenous Peoples as they reclaim and strengthen their food systems, ensuring a future where all communities have sovereign access to the foods that sustain them culturally, spiritually, and physically.