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Leveraging Indigenous Peoples' foods and botanicals to improve health, social wellbeing, cultural identity and economic self-determination
   

Leveraging Indigenous Peoples' foods and botanicals to improve health, social wellbeing, cultural identity and economic self-determination

Luke B Williams, Jacob Birch, Caroline Deen, Hamish MacDonald, Veronica Matthews, Brett Rowling Alana Gall
Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, Vol.50(2), p.100311
17/03/2026
: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anzjph.2025.100311
: 41850926
 

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Leveraging Indigenous Peoples’ foods and botanicals to improve health, social wellbeing, cultural identity and economic self-determination
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economic self-determination Indigenous cultural intellectual property Indigenous traditional medicine traditional knowledge Indigenous foods Aboriginal Australia
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (hereafter Indigenous Peoples), colonisation and the ongoing impacts of globalisation threaten the viability of Indigenous food systems. The suppression of traditional knowledge, displacement from ancestral lands, destruction of natural resources and the decline in culturally appropriate and locally sourced foods compromise Indigenous Peoples’ ability to maintain and access their traditional food systems. This is further exacerbated by biodiversity loss, landscape degradation and exploitative and profit-driven markets. These issues are compounded by increasing land scarcity associated with population growth, urbanisation and the ongoing impacts of climate change. Collectively, these factors undermine Indigenous food security and food sovereignty while also contributing to the prevalence of non-communicable disease in Indigenous communities, as highlighted by Maudrie et al. 1 As a result, communities are calling for increased access to traditional foods and greater control over their food systems. While efforts to address these challengers are underway, empowering Indigenous Peoples to control their food systems and to utilise traditional practices in resource management is critical for protecting biodiversity, increasing climate resilience , alleviating poverty and strengthening global food security, as discussed by Antonelli.
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