Abstract
Sustainability in agriculture and environmentalism has been dominated by colonial powers and framed as modern, novel, and innovative. Indigenous scholars work to reframe sustainability as a process of returning to traditional forms of agriculture. I study the ways in which Māori food sovereignty meets needs of sustainability while decolonizing land, body, and mind. Originally planned as a qualitative case study of Māori food sovereignty initiatives, this work shifted to reflect the need to decenter colonial modes within my field. Using narrative analysis and autoethnography, I instead tell the story of my own learning process. Just as recentering indigenous narratives requires communicating the story of colonization, decolonizing the environmental studies requires stripping the historically invisible researcher of credentials. To understand Traditional Ecological Knowledge means to respect Indigenous ways of knowing, in academia as well as agriculture.
Advisor
Haider, Erum
Department
Environmental Studies
Recommended Citation
Savage, Jerusha, "Storying Indigenous Food Sovereignty in Aotearoa: A Journey Through Learning Sustainable Māori Food Sovereignty" (2025). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 11264.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/11264
Keywords
sustainability, food sovereignty, narrative research
Publication Date
2025
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2025 Jerusha Savage