Indigenous Peoples in high-income countries experience higher burdens of food insecurity, obesity, and diet-related health conditions compared to national averages. The objective of this systematic scoping review is to synthesize information from the published literature on the methods/approaches, findings, and scope for research and interventions on the retail food sector servicing Indigenous Peoples in high-income countries. A structured literature search in two major international databases yielded 139 relevant peer-reviewed articles from nine countries. Most research was conducted in Oceania and North America, and in rural and remote regions. Several convergent issues were identified across global regions including limited grocery store availability/access, heightened exposure to unhealthy food environments, inadequate market food supplies (i.e., high prices, limited availability, and poor quality), and common underlying structural factors including socio-economic inequality and colonialism. A list of actions that can modify the nature and structure of retailing systems to enhance the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthful foods is identified. While continuing to (re)align research with community priorities, international collaboration may foster enhanced opportunities to strengthen the evidence base for policy and practice and contribute to the amelioration of diet quality and health at the population level.

At what pace do storytellers represent climate change in the “rapidly changing” Arctic? Popular and scholarly narratives of Indigenous vulnerability too often address climate change as a singular event that reorganizes local lifeworlds in unprecedented ways. On the ground however, contemporary climate impacts, such as “food insecurity,” are refracted through a range of simultaneous and cumulative ecological, social, and political structures that can precede and/or unfold slower than climate change. These factors include the intergenerational relations of care within communities, as well as multiple political challenges to their continuance. Throughout Iñupiaq Alaska, hunting is practiced as a form of care and sovereignty undergirding healthy, resilient, and collective Indigenous futures.

Although North American settler governments face scrutiny over the ecological, social, and ethical shortcomings of environmental policy, many Indigenous Nations are pursuing a resurgence of environmental self-governance according to ancestral principles and practices. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, the reintroduction and prioritized conservation of sea otters by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) actively impedes the harvest of culturally and nutritionally significant shellfish species by Nuu-chah-nulth Nations. Integrating a range of qualitative methods, we argue that structural inequities, divergent normative and material priorities, and ontological differences animate a divide between Nuu-chah-nulth and Canadian state governing bodies in sea otter management. The DFO’s unwillingness to accommodate Indigenous knowledge, principles, and priorities in its sea otter management scheme reproduces the unequal power relations of settler colonialism to the detriment of Indigenous food sovereignty and security. We propose to reframe sea otter governance around the Nuu-chah-nulth principles of hišukʔiš c̓awaak (everything is one), ʔiisaak (respect with caring), and ʔuʔaałuk (taking care of). This reorientation is in alignment with the efforts of Indigenous peoples throughout Canada and globally to enact multi-species caretaking through the resurgence of self-governance rooted in ancestral knowledge and wisdom. Ultimately, we argue that a sea otter governance structure centering Nuu-chah-nulth principles, ecological knowledge, and leadership would be well-positioned to lead collaborations and respectful engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Nations.

This chapter addresses a range of climate impacts facing Arctic Indigenous communities and the various frameworks that social scientists have used to understand and engage these challenges. Specifically, it examines community efforts to uphold and adapt marine mammal hunting in the context of rapidly declining sea ice in Northwest Alaska. Kivalina Volunteer Search and Rescue (KVL-SAR) is an association of hunters and first responders that plays a critical role in community safety, care, and resilience within the 500-person Iñupiaq community of Kivalina. This chapter describes an ongoing collaboration between KVL-SAR and the University of Washington to co-produce knowledge, action, and capacity in support of locally determined climate adaptation priorities. Drawing on Kyle Whyte’s concept of “Indigenous ecologies,” the chapter argues for Indigenous self-determination in creating and enacting adaptative climate solutions. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->