How food became a weapon of colonization

Food, Colonization, and Indigenous Food Sovereignty

The video examines how food has been used to undermine Indigenous peoples and how communities are rebuilding food sovereignty.

Food as a Tool of Colonization

Rick describes French forces burning Haudenosaunee cornfields in the mid-1600s to weaken communities and disrupt their way of life. He also recounts George Washington’s 1777 campaign, which destroyed villages, crops, and orchards.

These attacks targeted food because it sustained communities both materially and culturally.

Assimilation and Resilience

Rick argues that colonial policy sought not only physical destruction but also the transformation of Indigenous peoples and their cultures. He compares Haudenosaunee resilience to corn: despite change and hardship, it continues to grow.

Access, Security, and Sovereignty

Adrian Lickers-Xavier distinguishes between:

• Food access: Whether someone can obtain food.
• Food security: Whether someone has enough appropriate food.

He emphasizes that culturally relevant food and a connection to its source matter too. Cost, health, mobility, and social or psychological barriers can all limit access.

Reconnecting Through Food

Speakers describe gardening, foraging, cooking, and learning food skills as ways to restore connections to land, community, and culture.

Denise Miller’s community project, Revitalizing Our Sustenance, uses a family property for gardening and plans to build a small longhouse as a place to teach traditional food practices. Miller says this work has also supported her sense of identity, purpose, and well-being.

Sharing Practical Knowledge

Chandra Miracle demonstrates how to prepare lyed corn, from removing the kernels to cooking them with hardwood ash.

Contributors also emphasize that food sovereignty can take many forms—from growing a few plants at home to choosing foods carefully at the grocery store and learning to read labels. They present these everyday practices as ways to reclaim knowledge and resist the loss of food traditions.

Presenters and Contributors

• Aicha Smith-Belghaba, presenter
• Rick (surname not stated)
• Adrian Lickers-Xavier
• Denise Miller
• Chandra Miracle

Elva Jamieson is quoted by Denise Miller.