Whose Land?

Complicating Settler Understandings of Land in Canada

Authors

  • Lauren Kepkiewicz University of Toronto

Keywords:

Food sovereignty, land, settler colonialism, Canada, Indigenous food systems

Abstract

Indigenous food activists and scholars have encouraged settler peoples to change relationships to land in settler colonial contexts such as Canada. In this paper I examine how settler food activists are responding to these calls by drawing from 25 interviews conducted with settler food activists working to change the dominant Canadian food system. Interviewees’ responses indicate a need for settler activists to center Indigenous land struggles, question settler farmer claims to land, challenge the Canadian state and private property regimes, and give land back to Indigenous nations. Based on interviewees’ responses, I argue that while some settlers may be beginning to respond to Indigenous calls to change relationships with land, that broader settler food sovereignty movements in Canada have yet to adequately engage with these calls.

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Published

2020-04-15

How to Cite

Kepkiewicz, L. (2020). Whose Land? Complicating Settler Understandings of Land in Canada. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 19(1), 245–269. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1760