"We get our education from the land": Student Perspectives of Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of participants who attended a Summer Institute in Mi’kma’ki that focused on Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS). Particularly, how the participants’ perceived the activities of the Summer Institute as shaping their understanding of IFS, and how they might use Two-Eyed Seeing to consider issues relating to IFS into the future. Two sets of focus groups took place; the first occurred at the Summer Institute and the second eight weeks later via video-conference. The focus groups were audio-recorded, and the data were analyzed thematically. Two key themes were identified from the analysis; 1) Understanding and Critiquing IFS, and 2) Two-Eyed Seeing as a means to deepen understandings of IFS. These findings offer the perspectives from those who learned about IFS and Two-Eyed Seeing from Mi'kmaq experts, and provides evidence to support the value of land-based learning when trying to gain a deeper understanding of IFS.