About IGCC
Our principles
These are not rules we follow. They are the values we carry — inherited from our ancestors and upheld in everything we do.
How we work
Grounded in culture,
guided by community
The Indigenous Global Chefs Collective is built on a foundation of cultural respect, shared leadership, and deep responsibility to the knowledge entrusted to us. These principles shape how we govern ourselves, how we work with one another, and how we engage with the wider world.
Indigenous knowledge is sacred
The food knowledge held by Indigenous peoples — the seeds, the techniques, the stories passed across generations — is sacred. It is not a resource to be extracted, commercialised, or appropriated. It belongs to the communities who have carried it, often across centuries of pressure and change. IGCC treats this knowledge with the reverence it deserves, in everything we do.
Every nation holds its own authority
Each Indigenous nation within IGCC retains full cultural authority and intellectual ownership over its own heritage. No recipe, name, story, tradition, or piece of knowledge belonging to one nation can be shared, used, or represented without appropriate consent and authority from that community. We are a collective of equals — not a hierarchy where some voices carry more weight than others.
We honour tikanga and cultural protocols
IGCC honours Indigenous knowledge systems, protocols, tikanga, and cultural sovereignty across all participating nations. This means we approach our work with humility, we follow the lead of knowledge holders and cultural practitioners, and we hold space for the diversity of practices and protocols that exist across our member nations. There is no single way of doing things — and that is a strength, not a complication.
Leadership is shared
No single region, nation, or individual holds dominance within IGCC. Our governance is deliberately networked — designed so that leadership rotates, voices are heard across all participating nations, and decisions are made by consensus wherever possible. We are building the kind of organisation we wish existed in the world: one where power is held lightly and shared generously.
Knowledge belongs to communities, not organisations
IGCC exists to amplify and protect Indigenous food knowledge — not to own it. We will never commercialise, licence, or profit from the cultural heritage of our member nations. Our role is to create the conditions in which that knowledge can be celebrated, transmitted, and protected on the community's own terms. When we are gone, the knowledge must remain with the people who hold it.
Food sovereignty is inseparable from cultural sovereignty
Access to ancestral foods, seeds, and growing practices is not just a matter of nutrition or agriculture — it is a matter of cultural identity and self-determination. IGCC understands that food sovereignty and cultural sovereignty are deeply connected, and that the work of protecting one is inseparable from the work of protecting the other.
Sharing knowledge with indigenous communities - Photo Credit Kohu Hakaraia
What this means in practice
Our commitments
No commercialisation without consent
No Indigenous knowledge, recipe, name, story, or tradition may be commercialised or shared publicly without the explicit authority and consent of the relevant community or knowledge holder.
Consensus before decisions
Major decisions within IGCC are made with consensus as the goal. Where consensus is not possible, we follow transparent, fair processes that ensure all voices have been genuinely heard.
Accountability to communities
We are accountable first and foremost to the Indigenous communities we serve — not to funders, governments, or institutions. Our governance structures are designed to keep that accountability real.
Transparency in all we do
Our trust deed, governance policies, and financial reporting are available to our members and the public. We believe transparency is not just good practice — it is a form of respect.
"When Indigenous food knowledge thrives, communities thrive — and when it is lost, something irreplaceable disappears with it."
Read our founding documents.
Our trust deed and governance policies set out these principles in full. We publish them openly as a mark of accountability.