Transcript Policy Influences affecting the food practices of

Policy Influences affecting the food
practices of Indigenous Australians since
colonisation.
Tarunna Sebastian
University of Technology, Sydney
Freedom from want of food, therefore, must mean
making available for every citizen in every country
sufficient of the right kind of food for health.
If we are planning food for the people, no lower
standard can be accepted.
Sir John Boyd (b.1880 d.1971)
First Director General of the
UN Food and Agricultural Organisation
• Aboriginal Australians face a range of
health challenges which can be linked to
dietary- related factors.
• Dietary practices of Aboriginal
Australians emerged from historical,
cultural, social and political structures in
place for over the past 200 years.
Life expectancy of Indigenous Australians
• The life expectancy gap between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people is
a national concern.
• Life style conditions such as diabetes
and life style risk factors affect
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
adults and younger age groups
The poor health of Indigenous people around
the globe is linked to
• Poverty
• Malnutrition
• Low levels of educational
attainment, and
• Poor access to programs of
disease prevention.
Examination of each major policy epoch on
food practices and identity
• Factors affecting Aboriginal
Australians food practices during:
• Pre-colonial
• Colonial
• Protection and
• Assimilation periods.
Pre- Colonial Food and Eating Practice
:
• A study conducted in
the 1970s of 200
nomadic Australian
Aboriginal men
described them as
‘slimly built, sinewy
featherweights’
(Elphinstone 1971 cited in Gracey
1996:198).
• People were depicted
as fit and slim in
paintings of first
contact.
Fire stick farming
Policies of protection and its impact on
food practices
• The colonial impact on Aboriginal peoples’
food practices still effect Aboriginal people’s
health.
• Traditional food practices were gradually
replaced by rations
• Rations were used instead of wages in
exchange for labour.
• Rations comprised of flour, sugar, tea and
jam.
Policies of assimilation
• Communal ‘feeding’
• Official ration not able to sustain
health
• Privatization of cooking and
eating removing Aboriginal
people from public sites of
collective consumption (Morris,
1989)
[The] rationing relationship was an historic
achievement… which turned Aboriginal
people into paupers and robbed them of
their own knowledge about food, culture
and agency (Rowse, 1998)
Food was also withheld as punishment
Policies of assimilation
• Forced removal of children
interrupted development
intergenerational food practices
and exposed children to
institutional malnourishment
Industrialisation of food practices
• The industrialisation of food practices has brought
about social and political change and with it
changes to the diet of Aboriginal people.
Other factors affecting food practice:
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Urbanisation
Loss of traditional food practices,
Increasingly sedentary lifestyles,
Access to transportation
Changing socio-economic status
Cooking technologies,
Food storage facilities
Conclusion
• Current patterns of food
consumption among Aboriginal
people are linked to more than
200 years of colonial food policy.
• These approaches continue and
are reflected in aspects of
current food policy
Thankyou
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