Regenerating Indigenous health and food systems: assessing conflict transformation models and sustainable approaches to Indigenous food sovereignty
Date
2012-12-13
Authors
McMullen, Jennifer
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Abstract
Through exploring nine Indigenous young adults’ perceptions of their roles in building health and wellness through traditional food sovereignty, I assessed the effectiveness of using John Paul Lederach’s (1997) framework of conflict transformation within an Indigenous context for the purpose of creating Indigenous food sovereignty. Conflict transformation does not acknowledge or address the detrimental effects colonization has had on Indigenous peoples within their daily lives. This gap in analysis stunted the effectiveness of conflict transformation in helping young Indigenous adults to challenge colonial authority and work towards developing sustainable approaches to Indigenous food sovereignty.
Within the findings, roles emerged related to a generational cycle of learning and teachings traditional knowledge and cultural practices that are applied in the everyday lives of Indigenous peoples. “Learner-teacher cycles” are an Indigenous response to conflicts stemming from colonization. The cycle follows a non-linear progression of learning cultural and traditional knowledge from family and community and the transmission of that knowledge back to family and peers. Learner-teacher cycles are an everyday occurrence and are embedded within Indigenous cultures. Through the learner-teacher cycles, young adults challenge the effects of colonization within their day-to-day lives by learning and practicing cultural ways of being and traditional knowledge, and then transferring their knowledge to next generations and peers.
I have concluded that conflict transformation is not an effective tool in resolving protracted conflicts within an Indigenous context, particularly with reference to Indigenous peoples from CoSalish and Dididaht territories on Turtle Island. Learner-teacher cycles, a framework based on Indigenous methods of challenging colonialism through learning, teaching and practicing cultural and traditional ways of being within everyday life, is an appropriate model for young Indigenous adults to use in creating Indigenous food sovereignty.
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Keywords
Dispute Resolution, Conflict Transformation, Peacebuliding, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous food systems, Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Sustainable self-determination, Social Policy, Health and Public Policy, Public health