Analyzing the NIMMIWG’s 231 Calls for Justice through a food studies lens

Inviting food systems scholars to the table

Abstract

In 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) released a report containing 231 Calls to Justice to address the disproportionate level of violence faced by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people in Canada. Six years later, there has been little progress towards implementing the Calls to Justice, and the MMIWG crisis remains urgent. As four women (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) engaged in Indigenous food systems work, we analyzed the calls to action through a food studies lens and highlighted key connections between gendered violence against Indigenous bodies and food studies. Calls for all governments; calls for industries, institutions, services and partnerships; and distinctions-based calls were all deemed relevant to food studies, with areas of interest including human security, culture, extractive and development industry, and correctional services. We offer these connections between MMIWG and food studies as a call to action for settler food systems scholars and practitioners to engage with these calls in their own work in order to advance justice for, and prioritize the safety and wellbeing of, Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. We urge settlers to practice kinship with the land and Indigenous Peoples as a way to hold the government accountable to the 231 Calls, and discuss rematriation as a path towards addressing the MMIWG crisis in Canada.