Food Sovereignty as Radical Decolonization: Dr. Priscilla Settee talks SK Research

Dr. Priscilla Settee is a University of Saskatchewan Professor -- a Doctor of Curricula Design -- a 20+ year advocate on multiple fronts, a David Suzuki Research fellow, and a Change Maker. She has taught hundreds of students at the University of Saskatchewan, where she is known to assign community service as a form of 'hands-on learning'. Her work in the past year has focused on Northern Saskatchewan Hunters and Trappers, and her research is raising alarm bells around subsistence living. 

"We have a crisis here. There are problems with Country foods. We need to adapt our diets." says Settee "the people on the ground (hunters, trappers, those living off the land) are saying there are serious problems". 

Dr. Settee credits early food-based work with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations as formative to her current path -- the FSIN is a provincial body that oversees 74 First Nations and works to honor the promises and intent of the Numbered Treaties in the province, including around healthcare, subsistence living, hunting / trapping and more. 

Saskatchewan has five of the 11 'numbered' or modern treaties made between the Crown and First Nations peoples between 1871 to 1921. 

"The State, Canada, has been very negligent - as have most States - in addressing climate change. Our industrial food system... there's a clear link between energy - what we use to warm our homes, drive our cars - and energy that fuels our social and economic systems.' said Settee when asked about a link between Climate Change and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Food and How we Get It goes much further than SK's borders, says Settee:  'The food sovereignty movement came out of a small collection of nations, well about 150 actually, named La Via Campesina--the core idea was that violence against women has to stop'. While these concepts may seem unconnected to the layman, Settee says the disruption of women in developing nations prevented older more sustainable practices like seed saving, and lead to the monopolization of agronomy by intellectual property holders like Monsanto. 

But there is cause for hope.

Meadow Lake's Organic Community Garden, which has been ongoing for years is looking to partner with Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation and Dr. Settee. Priscilla says she believes First Nations communities do hold the skills necessary to decolonize their food systems 'but we better hurry up'. 

Dr. Settee teaches a course at the University of Saskatchewan on Indigenous Food Sovereignty.