Abstract
Indigenous peoples’ health is often reported through physical health disparities and prevalence of chronic disease experiences. Western perspectives often quantify health by reducing it to a set of numbers using a bio-medical approach. Health for Indigenous peoples in Canada is experienced more holistically, through a broader concept of “being well”, which is achieved through relationships to other people, to the land and creation, and to our ancestors in the spiritual realm. Using this Indigenous lens, the notion of health is applied to the food systems and to healthy eating. Indigenous peoples maintain their health through accessing fresh, original and healthy foods on their traditional lands. In order do so, traditional food systems are composed of a network of complex relationships that include the physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual aspects of learning and teaching ways of the land as well as food skills. These relationships feed people holistically through the connection to the land and vice versa. Colonization has created numerous barriers for Indigenous peoples to be healthy on their own terms. There is a great deal of pain associated with food for Indigenous peoples as a result of starvation tactics during treaty negotiation processes, residential schools, nutrition experiments, and hunting and fishing laws which have impacted Indigenous peoples’ ability to eat original foods and maintain their health. The concepts of health and wellbeing, in the context of Indigenous food systems and cultures, should be adapted to serve the needs and represent the realities of Indigenous peoples.