Cultural Connectedness as Obesity Prevention: Indigenous Youth Perspectives on Feast for the Future

Abstract

Objective: To describe a community-based obesity-prevention initiative that promoted cultural connectedness and traditional food revitalization and gained insight into youth participants' perspectives on the program through a photovoice methodology.

Methods: Photovoice methods were used with fourth- and fifth-grade youths (aged 9-11 years) in the US Southwest who had participated in the Feast for the Future program. A total of 44 youths from 3 communities met for 8-9 sessions; they took photos of current food environments and traditional food systems, and discussed them as well as Feast for the Future and hopes for the future, and then prepared a final presentation. Photovoice sessions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, then open coded using Atlas.ti.

Results: Five common themes emerged: traditional food is farmed or gardened, traditional foods are healthy, Feast for the Future supported positive connections to culture, hope for more farming or gardening for future generations, and store or less nutrient-dense food is unhealthy.

Conclusions and implications: Photovoice can be an effective way to engage Indigenous youths in conversations about their culture and food environments. The findings suggest that attention to revitalizing traditional food systems and supporting cultural connectedness may be an effective approach to obesity prevention in tribal communities, although future research would be needed to assess the impact of the intervention on obesity rates.

Keywords: American Indian; community-based participatory action research; diabetes prevention; indigenous; obesity prevention.