Abstract
Alternative food networks (AFNs) create spaces for women to engage in dialogue and resistance through storytelling. These narratives offer valuable input into projects and policies because they reflect lived experiences. The Hawai‘i and Aotaeroa New Zealand contexts in particular provide a critical opportunity to examine how decolonizing agriculture and food systems disrupts the industrialized agro-food system, allowing for meaningful participation by women in Indigenous and marginalized communities, sometimes one and the same in island ecosystems, and who are often at the forefront of climate crises. This book examines how food systems are shaped by political, economic, and gendered social experiences in Hawai‘i and Aotearoa New Zeleand, and how these are elements are co-constituted by ecological systems in both places. Through interviews with Kanaka Maoli, Māori, and other diverse women, it highlights Indigenous ecological values, whereby knowledge and being are not separate - but connected. Focusing on storytelling, the book examines how these principles influence women’s roles in AFNs and whether they have the potential to shape new models of agricultural communities as well as provide best practices models for other island ecosystems and beyond.
Presenters
Monique MironescoProfessor, Political Science, University of Hawai'i, West O'ahu, Hawaii, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
Food Systems, Food Sovereignty, Decolonization, Women, Storytelling, Oceania
