Themes and codes
| Sub-themes | Second-order codes | Sample first-order codes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theme 1: Determinants of food sharing | ||||
| Cultural significance | Cultural identity (21 articles) | “Inuit subsistence activities remain crucial to their life and identity” (Omura, 2023, p. 241) | ||
| Socio-culture and economic disruptions | Socio-cultural changes (5 articles) | “We trap everything in the bush, even beavers … My mom taught me how to do that … It’s different now my mom has passed away and my kids, I don’t hardly go over there now … I’m forcing myself to go there more and more” (Ahmed et al., 2024, p. 6) | ||
| Adoption of traditional food practices | Enhanced food security (11 articles) | “Factors improving food security were the customary systems for sharing ‘country food’, and the presence of social support networks in the community” (Lardea et al., 2011, p. 2) | ||
| Culture continuity (13 articles) | “[S]haring healthy kai strategies could prevent the further loss of traditional knowledge” (Moeke-Pickering et al., 2015, p. 38) | |||
| Food access for families and community | Generalised reciprocity (5 articles) | “… contemporary Inuit subsistence, while retaining its essential/traditional cultural goal … does not always conform to commonly held assumptions of hunter-gatherer sharing as generalised reciprocity” (Wenzel, 1995, p. 43) | ||
| Supporting people experiencing vulnerability (12 articles) | “[a] lot of people in here they don’t have no boats, or you know the stuff for hunting … They can’t hunt. … Other people hunt and it’s good when they share their meat too, to feed the family. ‘Cause my brothers always do that when they kill moose; they share with those who are unable to participate in harvesting” (Ahmed et al., 2024, p. 27) | |||
| Altruism (6 articles) | “… eating and being together and helping one another, make sure everybody—you know, no one should starve … cause Mother Earth provided enough stuff here for everyone” (Neufeld and Richmond, 2020, p. 6) | |||
| Generosity (5 articles) | …store food is made available to a family’s network, as would country food, and emphasises the importance of generosity… (Quintal-Marineau, 2019, p. 588) | |||
| Resilience | Crisis-based sharing (5 articles) | “We helped out each other, we had to, I couldn’t get through without my community helping us out. People would drop food for us at our door. We pulled together” (Rana et al., 2024, p. 8) | ||
| Minimising inequalities (3 articles) | “When we consider the reality of inequality within the settlement, the simultaneous vibrance and decay of subsistence makes more sense” (Ready, 2017, p. 644) | |||
| Theme 2: Types and forms of food sharing | ||||
| Social network sharing | Kin-based sharing (14 articles) | “kinship ties appear to have emerged as a salient aspect of payuktuq food distribution and sharing practices” (Collings et al., 1998, p. 311) | ||
| Sharing by invitation (5 articles) | “Invitation sharing includes both close relatives and more distantly related or nonrelated households” (Collings et al., 1998, p. 308) | |||
| Sharing by request (7 articles) | “Much food sharing between households in northern Dene communities occurs in response to a request” (McMillan and Parlee, 2013, p. 437) | |||
| Sharing as gifting (5 articles) | “Women described Three strategies for sharing food: gifting store food, hosting meals and sharing a store account” (Quintal-Marineau, 2019, p. 590) | |||
| Sharing by delivery (6 articles) | “Everyone is giddy and excited waiting for their share which may be distributed at various public buildings or on the beach, or delivered to homes” (Carter et al., 2025, p. 10) | |||
| Community-based food sharing | Community-wide food sharing (13 articles) | “… the lineups are very, very long. There’s lots of people that want country food when it’s caught and when it’s available. Everyone is giddy and excited waiting for their share” (Cater et al., 2025, p. 10) | ||
| Sharing meals communally (6 articles) | “Shared Meals Eating food in other households is an important way to access country food on a regular basis, and meals involving participants from outside the hosting household, and even extended family, happen daily and are more common than the removal of country food from a host’s house. The main gathering place for intra-ilagiit shared meals is usually the family leader’s home” (Harder and Wenzel, 2012, p. 310) | |||
| Organised sharing (12 articles) | “The [Nunavut] government had food hampers (program), I heard, and that really helped. It was it good food, good supplies that they put in there. Everything that we needed” (Rana et al., 2024, p. 7) | |||
| Theme 3: Food sharing practices to maximise wellbeing | ||||
| Personal wellbeing | Physical wellbeing (7 articles) | “We didn’t have any fruits back then, like you couldn’t get fruits. So mom would say, ‘Oh, you needs a good glass of berry juice to make you better’…when the snow was melting and you’d go and there would be berries left from the previous fall, she’d pick those and make juice and she’d swear it would make you better and I swear it does too” (Martin, 2011, p. 389) | ||
| Mental wellbeing (7 articles) | “ [t]he best is when people are walking by or driving by and you randomly stop them to give them a fish or some meat of any sort, people are so happy!” (Carter et al., 2025, p. 10) | |||
| Spiritual wellbeing (5 articles) | “Reciprocal relationships or shared roles in the maintenance of traditional foodways are described as ‘intimate and spiritual’” (Neufeld and Richmond, 2020, p. 9) | |||
| Community wellbeing | Cultural solidarity (9 articles) | “Culturally embedded sharing practices thus optimized access to the resources of the ilagiit for both individuals and households, who shared the responsibility of community well-being” (Harder and Wenzel, 2012, p. 309) | ||
| Social cohesiveness (12 articles) | “… the practice of sharing food, which plays a pivotal role in the system, and is crucial in fostering the development of an extended family and relationships within its members” (Omura, 2023, p. 256) | |||
| Environmental wellbeing | Reciprocal relationship with environment (7 articles) | “Traditional food-sharing activities have been linked with spiritual and mental health benefits” (Martin, 2011, p. 285) | ||
| Zero waste (6 articles) | “[F]ood-sharing and ensuring that everyone has enough to eat is the strongly held belief that nothing should be wasted” (Martin, 2011, p. 393) | |||
| Sustainable harvesting (3 articles) | “We must not over harvest so that we continue to have supplies and harvests for later” (Carter et al., 2025, p. 11) | |||
| Theme 4: Barriers to food-sharing practices | ||||
| Socio-culture and economic disruptions | Socio-cultural changes (5 articles) | “We trap everything in the bush, even beavers … My mom taught me how to do that … It’s different now my mom has passed away and my kids, I don’t hardly go over there now … I’m forcing myself to go there more and more” (Ahmed et al., 2024, p. 6) | ||
| Changes in economic systems (15 articles) | “There is concern that traditional food-sharing practices are increasingly under stress due to adverse socio-economic factors” (Lardea et al., 2011) “… contemporary economic trends encourage wage labor and discourage subsistence hunting is troubling. Simply put, wage employment seems to foster the isolation of individuals within the settlement, at least as measured by the movement of country food” (Collings, 2011, p. 216). | |||
| Government policies (7 articles) | “[P]articipants discussed some of the barriers to getting out on the land and accessing traditional foods, such as increasingly strict policies and regulations regarding hunting and fishing; competing commitments such as paid employment and childcare; and rising costs associated with licensing, gun regulations” (Martin, 2011, p. 391) | |||
| Environmental disruptions | Climate change (10 articles) | “Climate change have also been identified as stressors to food systems in the Circumpolar North” (Guo et al., 2015, p. 1) | ||
| Food insecurity (15 articles) | “We want to eat country food, but the lack of it, there are so many people in the community now, there is sometimes less sharing outside of family members, because there is not enough” (Carter et al., 2025, p. 11) | |||
| Theme 5: Building capacity for food-sharing practices | ||||
| Adoption of traditional food practices | Enhanced food security (11 articles) | “Factors improving food security were the customary systems for sharing ‘country food’, and the presence of social support networks in the community” (Lardea et al., 2011, p. 2) | ||
| Circular approaches (7 articles) | “‘Return to land’ systems to regenerate and rehabilitate Papatūānuku. And then the cycle begins again …. This is our own Indigenous ‘take’ on the notion of a circular economy, similar to the circular economy emphasis on product life cycle, product reuse and recycling” (Kawharu, 2020, p. 22) | |||
| Food initiatives based on Indigenossus food-sharing practices | Knowledge transfer (9 articles) | “Programmes based on cultural teachings are recognised as crucial for fostering resilience” (Rana et al., 2024, p. 10) | ||
| Community engagement (8 articles) | “The Niska (goose) program, beyond addressing issues of overabundant and invasive species and food security, underscores its significance in providing not just tangible benefits but also cultural advantages to communities on a global scale. The program, in its entirety, represents a comprehensive approach that intertwines cultural revitalization, community engagement, and holistic wellbeing, emphasizing the need for holistic interventions that go beyond addressing immediate challenges to create enduring positive impacts on Indigenous communities” (Ahmed et al., 2024, p. 9) | |||
| Sub-themes | Second-order codes | Sample first-order codes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cultural significance | Cultural identity (21 articles) | “Inuit subsistence activities remain crucial to their life and identity” ( | ||
| Socio-culture and economic disruptions | Socio-cultural changes (5 articles) | “We trap everything in the bush, even beavers … My mom taught me how to do that … It’s different now my mom has passed away and my kids, I don’t hardly go over there now … I’m forcing myself to go there more and more” ( | ||
| Adoption of traditional food practices | Enhanced food security (11 articles) | “Factors improving food security were the customary systems for sharing ‘country food’, and the presence of social support networks in the community” ( | ||
| Culture continuity (13 articles) | “[S]haring healthy kai strategies could prevent the further loss of traditional knowledge” ( | |||
| Food access for families and community | Generalised reciprocity (5 articles) | “… contemporary Inuit subsistence, while retaining its essential/traditional cultural goal … does not always conform to commonly held assumptions of hunter-gatherer sharing as generalised reciprocity” ( | ||
| Supporting people experiencing vulnerability (12 articles) | “[a] lot of people in here they don’t have no boats, or you know the stuff for hunting … They can’t hunt. … Other people hunt and it’s good when they share their meat too, to feed the family. ‘Cause my brothers always do that when they kill moose; they share with those who are unable to participate in harvesting” ( | |||
| Altruism (6 articles) | “… eating and being together and helping one another, make sure everybody—you know, no one should starve … cause Mother Earth provided enough stuff here for everyone” ( | |||
| Generosity (5 articles) | …store food is made available to a family’s network, as would country food, and emphasises the importance of generosity… ( | |||
| Resilience | Crisis-based sharing (5 articles) | “We helped out each other, we had to, I couldn’t get through without my community helping us out. People would drop food for us at our door. We pulled together” ( | ||
| Minimising inequalities (3 articles) | “When we consider the reality of inequality within the settlement, the simultaneous vibrance and decay of subsistence makes more sense” ( | |||
| Social network sharing | Kin-based sharing (14 articles) | “kinship ties appear to have emerged as a salient aspect of payuktuq food distribution and sharing practices” ( | ||
| Sharing by invitation (5 articles) | “Invitation sharing includes both close relatives and more distantly related or nonrelated households” ( | |||
| Sharing by request (7 articles) | “Much food sharing between households in northern Dene communities occurs in response to a request” ( | |||
| Sharing as gifting (5 articles) | “Women described Three strategies for sharing food: gifting store food, hosting meals and sharing a store account” ( | |||
| Sharing by delivery (6 articles) | “Everyone is giddy and excited waiting for their share which may be distributed at various public buildings or on the beach, or delivered to homes” ( | |||
| Community-based food sharing | Community-wide food sharing (13 articles) | “… the lineups are very, very long. There’s lots of people that want country food when it’s caught and when it’s available. Everyone is giddy and excited waiting for their share” (Cater | ||
| Sharing meals communally (6 articles) | “Shared Meals Eating food in other households is an important way to access country food on a regular basis, and meals involving participants from outside the hosting household, and even extended family, happen daily and are more common than the removal of country food from a host’s house. The main gathering place for intra-ilagiit shared meals is usually the family leader’s home” ( | |||
| Organised sharing (12 articles) | “The [Nunavut] government had food hampers (program), I heard, and that really helped. It was it good food, good supplies that they put in there. Everything that we needed” ( | |||
| Personal wellbeing | Physical wellbeing (7 articles) | “We didn’t have any fruits back then, like you couldn’t get fruits. So mom would say, ‘Oh, you needs a good glass of berry juice to make you better’…when the snow was melting and you’d go and there would be berries left from the previous fall, she’d pick those and make juice and she’d swear it would make you better and I swear it does too” ( | ||
| Mental wellbeing (7 articles) | “ [t]he best is when people are walking by or driving by and you randomly stop them to give them a fish or some meat of any sort, people are so happy!” ( | |||
| Spiritual wellbeing (5 articles) | “Reciprocal relationships or shared roles in the maintenance of traditional foodways are described as ‘intimate and spiritual’” ( | |||
| Community wellbeing | Cultural solidarity (9 articles) | “Culturally embedded sharing practices thus optimized access to the resources of the ilagiit for both individuals and households, who shared the responsibility of community well-being” ( | ||
| Social cohesiveness (12 articles) | “… the practice of sharing food, which plays a pivotal role in the system, and is crucial in fostering the development of an extended family and relationships within its members” ( | |||
| Environmental wellbeing | Reciprocal relationship with environment (7 articles) | “Traditional food-sharing activities have been linked with spiritual and mental health benefits” ( | ||
| Zero waste (6 articles) | “[F]ood-sharing and ensuring that everyone has enough to eat is the strongly held belief that nothing should be wasted” ( | |||
| Sustainable harvesting (3 articles) | “We must not over harvest so that we continue to have supplies and harvests for later” ( | |||
| Socio-culture and economic disruptions | Socio-cultural changes (5 articles) | “We trap everything in the bush, even beavers … My mom taught me how to do that … It’s different now my mom has passed away and my kids, I don’t hardly go over there now … I’m forcing myself to go there more and more” ( | ||
| Changes in economic systems (15 articles) | “There is concern that traditional food-sharing practices are increasingly under stress due to adverse socio-economic factors” ( | |||
| Government policies (7 articles) | “[P]articipants discussed some of the barriers to getting out on the land and accessing traditional foods, such as increasingly strict policies and regulations regarding hunting and fishing; competing commitments such as paid employment and childcare; and rising costs associated with licensing, gun regulations” ( | |||
| Environmental disruptions | Climate change (10 articles) | “Climate change have also been identified as stressors to food systems in the Circumpolar North” ( | ||
| Food insecurity (15 articles) | “We want to eat country food, but the lack of it, there are so many people in the community now, there is sometimes less sharing outside of family members, because there is not enough” ( | |||
| Adoption of traditional food practices | Enhanced food security (11 articles) | “Factors improving food security were the customary systems for sharing ‘country food’, and the presence of social support networks in the community” ( | ||
| Circular approaches (7 articles) | “‘Return to land’ systems to regenerate and rehabilitate Papatūānuku. And then the cycle begins again …. This is our own Indigenous ‘take’ on the notion of a circular economy, similar to the circular economy emphasis on product life cycle, product reuse and recycling” ( | |||
| Food initiatives based on Indigenossus food-sharing practices | Knowledge transfer (9 articles) | “Programmes based on cultural teachings are recognised as crucial for fostering resilience” ( | ||
| Community engagement (8 articles) | “The Niska (goose) program, beyond addressing issues of overabundant and invasive species and food security, underscores its significance in providing not just tangible benefits but also cultural advantages to communities on a global scale. The program, in its entirety, represents a comprehensive approach that intertwines cultural revitalization, community engagement, and holistic wellbeing, emphasizing the need for holistic interventions that go beyond addressing immediate challenges to create enduring positive impacts on Indigenous communities” ( | |||
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