After reading “Food Sovereignty, Justice, and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance”, I had an answer to the question: why is conserving food so related to self determination of Indigenous peoples? Most of us are aware that settler colonialism undermines Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous ways of living. So how does food come into the picture? In this blog post, I want to briefly go over Whyte’s discussion, and then apply it to the case of the lobster feud in Nova Scotia.
In the essay, Whyte discusses the claim that colonial powers violate Indigenous peoples’ collective self determination. The self determination discussed here specifically concerns food systems, or food sovereignty, and violations of these are food injustices. When we talk about food systems, we are referring to complex chains of “production, distribution, consumption, recirculation, and trade” (Whyte, 2018). Food sovereignty is the right of governments and peoples to choose the method in which food is consumed and produced for the purpose of respecting their livelihoods (Whyte, 2018). Food injustice occurs when a group of humans (in this case settler colonials) systematically dominates another (or several other) human groups by connecting and interacting with one another in both global and local food systems (Whyte, 2018). When we talk about food injustice, we’re discussing a structural issue. We’re concerned about the corporate consolidation that has created a monopoly of the agricultural industry – thereby encroaching on food consumption, and food sovereignty. What is important to understand in Whyte’s discussion of these topics, is that the demand for big agriculture was not a consumer demand, but that of the producer.
Indigenous peoples hold that one of the solutions to protecting food sovereignty might require conservation of particular foods (Whyte, 2018). Examples of these particular foods include salmon, and wild rice. But Whyte makes an argument that this type of claim (that conservation is necessary) pushes theories about food sovereignty and food injustice not grounded in fixed conceptions of Indigenous cultures (Whyte, 2018). Instead this claim, and others like it, can offer significant contributions for understanding how colonial domination of Indigenous cultures is a type of injustice undermining important relationships supporting collective Indigenous self determination (Whyte, 2018). To put this more simply, this claim that food sovereignty might require conservation wasn’t founded in Indigenous traditional knowledge. Therefore, we must acknowledge that colonial influences are taking away from Indigenous collective self determination by endangering their food sovereignty.
Whyte presents food sovereignty as a norm that defends self determination of collectives over their food systems. These collectives include societies, and governments, and therefore also includes Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples themselves describe food injustice as violating their collective self determination over food systems. Essentially, we can conclude that Whyte is correct in saying that food is another area in which Indigenous sovereignty and right to self determination has been violated.
Briefly, the Nova Scotia lobster problem can be broken down to the title of a Washington Post Article: “Indigenous people in Nova Scotia exercised their right to catch lobster. Now they’re under attack”. Mi’kmaq fishers have experienced threats, their traps being pulled, and their lines being cut by non-Indigenous commercial fishers (Coletta, 2020). The goal apparently is to remove the Mi’kmaq fishers from St. Mary’s Bay. Angry mobs of non-indigenous fishers have ransacked Indigenous fisher’s catch, and burned down one of the two lobster pounds after pelting the building with rocks and dumping the lobster (Coletta, 2020). The issue at the centre of their anger is that the Sipekne’katik, a Mi’kmaq band, are asserting their right to pull lobster outside of the closed fishing season. This right is affirmed by both courts and the treaties. The Mi’kmaq have a constitutional right to hunt, fish, gather and secure necessities or a ‘moderate livelihood’ (Coletta, 2020).
The fact that non-Indigenous fishers have been allowed to get away with assaulting Indigenous self-determination and food sovereignty questions whether the government is truly committed to reconciling with Indigenous peoples. Non-Indigenous fishers’ spokespersons have claimed that this outrage is due to lobster conservation and protecting the livelihoods of fishers. This conservation claim is thin, as the Mi’kmaq have 11 licences to 11 boats with 50 traps each, in comparison to the 979 licensed boats with up to 400 traps each in this area of Nova Scotia (Coletta, 2020). Sounds like settler colonialism to me, and Whyte would be inclined to agree with me. Moreover, Dalhousie University biologist has affirmed that the Sipekne’katik pose a threat very close to zero to the lobster stock (Coletta, 2020).
If Whyte were to analyze this case, he would tell us that this is an example of attempting to remove food sovereignty from a group, thereby endangering their food system and causing food injustice. This case is exactly how infringing on Indigenous food systems threatens Indigenous rights of self determination. Furthermore, this undermines Indigenous collective self determination and the Sipekne’katik identity. The government should be protecting Indigenous rights in this case and prosecuting the people directly harming it. Failure to do so only further endangers the Indigenous peoples and their right to self determination.

~Suzanah

 

Coletta, Amanda. “Indigenous People in Nova Scotia Exercised Their Right to Catch Lobster. Now They’re under Attack.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 26 Oct. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/canada-nova-scotia-indigenous-lobster-fishery/2020/10/24/d7e83f54-12ed-11eb-82af-864652063d61_story.html.

Whyte, Kyle. “Food Sovereignty, Justice, and Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Settler Colonialism and Collective Continuance”. The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics. March 2018.