Part three: Food justice means centering Indigenous leadership

November 19th 2024

This is part three of our three-part series on decolonization and food justice, where we explore what decolonization is, how Indigenous leaders are decolonizing food systems, and how Oregon Food Bank’s work toward food justice is inseparable from the decolonization movement. Read part one and part two here.

Decolonization is not a metaphor

As Dr. Eve Tuck explains: “Decolonization is not a metaphor.”

“In the United States, ongoing protests in Minnesota are being waged against the proposed Line 3 oil pipeline, which the tribes who live along its planned route say would violate their sovereignty. Led by the Ojibwe people, the protestors, or water protectors, decry the pipeline’s potential impact on climate change, historic and sacred sites, and the water supply and food systems. Just a few states away, NDN Collective, an Indigenous organization based in South Dakota, launched a Land Back campaign in 2020 calling for the return of all public lands to Indigenous people, beginning with Mount Rushmore… These are just a few examples of protests across the country being waged to remind us that decolonization, or the struggle to free oneself from the shackles of colonial rule and tyranny, is not a metaphor.” — Teen Vogue, 2020

“Food is a key example of where racism manifests itself at every level of society. On an individual level, racism creates stigma around certain cultural foods, and the people who make and eat them. On a societal level, racism leads to consequences like food gentrification, where previously affordable staple foods like beef bone broth become trendy and are sold at high prices, out of reach for the communities that have cooked with them for generations…

But food can also be an antidote to oppression. Reclaiming our cultural foods and connecting to the land can help us recover from the effects of racial trauma, both physically and emotionally. Food can help counter racial trauma as we find healing in the stories of survival and resistance that each crop, technique, and dish reveals about our ancestors and cultures.” — Yuri Lee, Writer

Duane Lane, Owner of 1852 Plants and Oregon Food Bank Ambassador

Duane is part of a growing movement to bring back First Foods and the culture they represent. “First Foods” refers to the more than 300 foods, from Chinook salmon to camas bulbs, that were staples of Indigenous diets and medicine in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years before colonization.

“Indigenous communities are original caretakers of the area,” Duane explained, “but with constant expansion of our urban environments, it’s becoming harder and harder for the Native community to access native plants and First Foods, especially in an urban environment.”

“It's very important that community members, myself included, utilize low water consumption and non-petroleum products,” said Duane. “I don't use herbicides or pesticides and I use biochar to assist the plants and capture more of the nitrogen and nutrients. And I have beneficial microbes in my container soil that hopefully the homeowner takes and utilizes on their property. Utilizing traditional growing practices and using native plants is very important as the climate adjusts here in the Northwest.”

Michelle Weeks, Founder of Good Rain Farm and participant in Oregon Food Bank’s Community Producer Support Program

As the founder of x̌ast sq̓it, Good Rain Farm in the Northern Willamette Valley, Michelle Weeks plans to “make sure everyone gets fed” by bringing Indigenous First Foods back to dinner plates, treating the soil with reverence and passing something on to the next generation of farmers.

“My tribe, my family became certified extinct and lost access to a lot of our land and a lot of our identity, a lot of our culture.

We're the original land tenders here. We had lived here for thousands of years and found a way to live here in harmony with our ecosystem and our fellow other beings. It's been difficult to realize that all this land was stolen Native land, and I also have to pay over a half a million dollars to access some land that would make this farm viable and successful forever. It's something I hopefully can pass on to the next generation of farmers.”

Investments in Native and Tribal fisheries

Indigenous farmers and small-scale food producers face barriers to launching farming businesses, compounded by Oregon’s exclusive, racist history of land use laws.

Systemic inequities make it difficult for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and all People of Color) producers to acquire suitable land for farming, access financial resources to purchase farming equipment and enroll in agricultural education and training programs. To address historical injustices and barriers, Oregon Food Bank’s Community Producer Support project supports local farmers and food producers from communities facing the highest rates of hunger.

Since 2021, Oregon Food Bank has invested nearly $4.9 million to support nearly 200 producers, including Native and Tribal fishers, fruit/vegetable producers, ranchers, herbalists, dairy farmers, bakers and more.

Advocacy for Indigenous language justice

Until the passing of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, it was effectively illegal to write or perform poetry in native languages. The violence in Indian Boarding Schools was another tool used to forcibly prevent the passing down of Indigenous languages, stories and culture. The preservation of Native languages is an act of resistance as part of the fight for Indigenous liberation.

In 2023, Oregon Food Bank joined organizers and community members to advocate for (and pass) Indigenous Language Justice, which supports access to language interpretation for Native language speakers and supports interpreters. Language has long been used as a tool of oppression, with people discriminated against and criminalized for speaking in their native language. When people can communicate in the language in which they feel most powerful, they can build community power. They can advocate for racial and social justice. This is the work that will end hunger at its roots, and that’s why we advocate for language justice across our communities.