Short-listed JW Dafoe Book Prize, 2024
Short-listed Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize, Canadian Historical Association, 2024

The manufacturing of a chronic food crisis

Food insecurity in the North is one of Canada’s most shameful public health and human rights crises. In Plundering the North, Kristin Burnett and Travis Hay examine the disturbing mechanics behind the origins of this crisis: state and corporate intervention in northern Indigenous foodways.

Despite claims to the contrary by governments, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), and the contemporary North West Company (NWC), the exorbitant cost of food in the North is neither a naturally occurring phenomenon nor the result of free-market forces. Rather, inflated food prices are the direct result of government policies and corporate monopolies. Using food as a lens to track the institutional presence of the Canadian state in the North, Burnett and Hay chart the social, economic, and political changes that have taken place in northern Ontario since the 1950s. They explore the roles of state food policy and the HBC and NWC in setting up, perpetuating, and profiting from food insecurity while undermining Indigenous food sovereignties and self-determination.

Plundering the North provides fresh insight into Canada’s settler colonial project by re-evaluating northern food policy and laying bare the governmental and corporate processes behind the chronic food insecurity experienced by northern Indigenous communities.

Contributor: Kristin Burnett

Dr. Kristin Burnett is a professor in the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University. A settler scholar, Burnett has published broadly on topics related to Indigenous health and well-being, and much of her current research and policy work engages with systemic barriers to health care, social services and supports, and food.

--- Contributor: Travis Hay

Travis Hay is a historian of Canadian settler colonialism who was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He is currently an assistant professor at Mount Royal University, the author of Inventing the Thrifty Gene, and the English Language Book Review Editor of Canadian Journal of Health History.

“Anyone who wants to better understand why the food systems in the provincial and territorial Norths are the way they are will appreciate this book.” ---

“Plundering the North resolves this tension in a multi-methodological and deeply researched study of state power and settler colonialism.”

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"A solid addition to the growing field of settler colonial studies, Plundering the North provides an important window into the Canadian government’s settler colonial toolbox. By exposing the true intent behind the government’s policies and programs that it portrays as benevolent and caring and the ways corporations took advantage of them to turn a profit, Burnett and Hay have offered a valuable contribution to our understanding of food insecurity in northern Indigenous communities and the role that food and foodways have played in settler colonialism in Canada."

--- "This is an engaging book that documents the history and present-day reality of food insecurity in the North. The authors impressively emphasize continuity in the predatory practices of colonialism [and] successfully demonstrate how persistent colonial and capitalistic practices worked together, both historically and in the present day. Readers with backgrounds in history, Indigenous studies, food studies, and other related disciplines will find this a compelling examination that bridges historical inquiry with contemporary urgency. This book will also appeal to Canadians wanting to know more about food history, food insecurity, and the pervasive power of settler colonialism in the North." ---

"Well written and accessible for non‐specialists, Plundering the North should be read by scholars interested in Canadian colonialism, food (in)security in Indigenous communities, the history of the HBC, and the geography and political economy of the North. Unlike much academic writing about food insecurity in northern Indigenous communities, the authors pay significant attention to questions of power."

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"Plundering the North is a powerful and timely examination of a crucial issue. It’s a call to action, urging readers to reconsider prevailing narratives and work towards meaningful change in policies and societal attitudes. Burnett and Hay have provided an essential contribution to the discourse on Indigenous rights, corporate responsibility, and food justice in Northern Canada."

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“Spanning the late nineteenth century to the current day, Plundering the North provides meticulous detail about the ways in which HBC and NWC operated as agents of the state’s settler-colonial ambitions while the state subsidized the processes and profits of those private corporations. This is a valuable, unique, and timely contribution.”