Indigenous Food Systems Network

Cross Cultural Interface where Indigenous and Sustainable Agri-food systems intra-act.

Published on Feb 11, 2014

Decolonizing the Mind: Healing Through Neurodecolonization and Mindfulness -

Author, educator, medical social worker and citizen of the Arikara (Sahnish) and Hidatsa Nations in North Dakota, Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, Ph.D. works with indigenous communities, teaching about healing the trauma of colonialism. On January 24, 2014 he spoke about his experiences at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, sharing his ideas about how to do go about doing this through techniques of mindfulness, thought and behavior which he refers to as neurodecolonization.

Watch this book trailer video to hear author, activist and academic Raj Patel talk about his book The Value of Nothing. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that we not only need to find a new economic model, but that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them.

The concept of food sovereignty was developed by Via Campesina and brought to the public debate during the World Food Summit in 1996 and represents an alternative to neoliberal policies. Since then, that concept has become a major issue of the international agricultural debate, even within the United Nations bodies. It was the main theme of the NGO forum held in parallel to the FAO World Food Summit of June 2002.