Looking Forward to a Food Sovereign Future: The Role of Tradition-Informed Values and Indigeneity in the Carcross/Tagish First Nation Community Garden

Abstract

This thesis offers an exploratory case-study of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation’s (CTFN) community garden. It aims to understand the extent to which the garden can facilitate cultural preservation. Using data from interviews and observations, this thesis grapples with Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) and decolonization within food systems and research methods. This study found that the CTFN community garden is not currently fulfilling tradition-informed values, and thus not contributing to aspects of cultural preservation or IFS. Understanding such themes necessitated the use of decolonized methods, as foregrounding local voices and food system priorities was inherent in understanding tradition-informed values. Consequently, the thesis offers a reflection on my challenges and offers insight on Junior academic barriers to decolonized methodologies. Considering these two sets of findings together, this thesis recommends potential interventions for pursuing IFS in the CTFN garden and for pursuing decolonized methods in academic institutions and research on community food-related topics.