August 2024
Context and Purpose
Dominant food systems – a product of globalized capitalism and colonialism – are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and are the primary cause of biodiversity loss. To transition to a more sustainable and equitable future, the ways we produce, harvest, and distribute food needs to change.
From 2024 to 2027, Living Relations will share stories of how Indigenous and settler partners are working together to respond to the food system sustainability transition challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) and Canada. This knowledge sharing project will amplify and build dialogue among Indigenous-led food system sustainability initiatives to show how such initiatives strengthen Indigenous food sovereignty and improve broader societal resilience.
Our name: Living Relations
Living Relations speaks to the connections within the web of life which we rely upon for sustenance. It also expresses the desire to decolonize governance relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers as central to the stories we share. Finally, it embodies the growing web of relationships between ANZ and Canada that this project will foster. In reconnecting and regenerating our living relations with the web of life, our work emphasizes values of relationality, reciprocity, respect, responsibility, and reverence.
Our Symbol: tuna / tyawerón:ko / eel
Image credit: Kasey King (née Skipper) from Wairoa, affiliates to Wairewa Rūnanga
The eel is an important species to Indigenous peoples in both ANZ and Canada. Known to Māori as tuna, it is both a sacred food and relative. The eel clan, referred to as tyawerón:ko in Kanyen’kéha (Mohawk language), is also a central clan of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy based on Turtle Island (also known as North America).
The presence of eel is an indicator of health of the environment and related communities, as their life cycles take them from deep in tropical oceans to coastal lagoons and through to the upland streams and mountains. In this way, the eel symbolizes the interconnection between humans, the land, and the sea. In both countries, pollution from large-scale agriculture has severely threatened this culturally important traditional food source and medicine. The fate of the eel is connected to our food producing and foraging landscapes.
To address the fate of the eel, our ways of working in relation to these landscapes needs to change. Indigenous ways of knowing offer a path forward by encouraging reciprocal relationships between humans, the land, and water. Stories about efforts to restore eel habitat in Canada and Aotearoa will be among the first this project will share.
Our Origins
Living Relations emerged from a partnership among the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3ci) in Canada and the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre (NTRC) in ANZ. In June 2023, 3ci and NTC jointly organized the Transition Challenge Wānanga, which brought over sixty experts, including iwi (tribal) authorities, government representatives (regional and national) as well as diverse agricultural industry stakeholders, Indigenous food systems specialists, academics, and representatives from civil society organizations, together in Ōtautahi / Christchurch for deep discussions about the transition facing agriculture and environment in Aotearoa. Guided by the Indigenous people of Ōtautahi, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, the wānanga emphasized the role of Indigenous leadership and self-determination efforts in addressing food systems challenges. It showed us the power of dialogue across countries reckoning with settler-colonialism and encouraged us to explore what could be done with a broader network of partners.
Our Partners
This transnational research and knowledge mobilization project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in March 2024. Working with 3ci and the NTRC, core partners include the First Nation of Na Cho N’Yuk Dun in the Yukon Territory, the Indigenous-led non-governmental organization Plenty Canada, the Teme Augama Anishinaabe and Temagami First Nation, and the First Nations Technical Institute based in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. This diverse team of partners organizations and Nations includes Indigenous expert advisors as well as researchers from Carleton University, the University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Lakehead University, First Nations’ Technical Institute, University of Otago. Queen’s University, and York University among others. This partnership brings together deep experience in sustainable agriculture, fisheries and food systems, law and governance, environmental protection, and Indigenous food sovereignty.
Planned Outputs and Impact
During the three-year project, a series of multimedia vignettes will be developed alongside participating communities to share learning within and between Indigenous-led initiatives and wider networks. Vignettes will contain combinations of archived interviews, short reports, podcasts, mini-docuseries, academic articles, book chapters and presentations. Vignettes will also feature in webinars promoted through our network of Indigenous, civil society, and government connections. The stories the Living Relations project shares will inspire new ways of seeing and addressing food system sustainability challenges that align with decolonization. We hope this will encourage wānanga (shared learning) and korero (storytelling) within and among communities and countries where these initiatives are emerging.
To contact us
Peter Andree, project co-director (Turtle Island), peter.andree@carleton.ca +1 819-459-1450
John Reid, project co-director (Aotearoa), john.reid@canterbury.ac.nz +64 21 2721369