Transporting Arctic foodways: the infrastructure of food sovereignty in Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

The conversation around sustainable food in Canada’s Arctic today is inherently connected to the logistics of transportation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2022–2025), this research examines how control over Nunavut’s transport systems shapes food sovereignty and Nunavut’s sustainable foodways, asking whose interests current infrastructures serve and how to strengthen culturally appropriate access to food. Based primarily on participant observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups, this article foregrounds community perspectives on hunting, sharing, and logistics. While country food remains central to wellbeing, identity, and daily practice, grocery stores are stocked with foods shipped up from the “South.” The article proposes reorienting transport toward inter-community connectivity, raising country food cargo priority, investing in year-round freezers, and long-term support for paid harvester programs as infrastructure for sustainable foodways. Ultimately, achieving food sovereignty in Nunavut requires infrastructure sovereignty and collaborative decision-making led by Nunavummiut.