Michelle Watson

Michelle Watson (she/her) is a Research Fellow in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health research in the College of Medicine & Public Health at Flinders University. Her research focuses on food insecurity, poverty, food sovereignty, foodways, health equity, and social justice, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts. The work is grounded in qualitative and Indigenous Research Methods, prioritising yarning, storytelling, and culturally safe approaches to knowledge generation that centre First Peoples’ voices and knowledge systems.

Her current research activities examine the role of food in strengthening connections to culture, identity, and Country, with a focus on cultivating healing through food sovereignty and first foods. Ongoing projects include the First Foods for First People pilot project and the development of a food sovereignty and food provenance business assessment tool. Across these projects, the work attends to how colonising food systems shape access to food, everyday food practices, and wellbeing, as well as how community-led approaches create space for alternative food futures.

Recent publications reflect this focus. One study, “Food’s what has you connected, food’s what makes you feel healed, food’s a way of connecting it all: Decolonizing the cooking process through the First Foods for First People pilot project,” explores the impact of a cooking workshop and first foods box on social and emotional wellbeing among Aboriginal people in southern Adelaide. Using Indigenous Research Methods and analytic frameworks centred on social and emotional wellbeing and foodways, the study highlights the cultural, social, and emotional significance of food and the ongoing effects of colonising foodways.

Another publication, The lived experience of food insecurity in Adelaide, South Australia, investigates pathways into food insecurity and the orthodox and unorthodox practices adults use to acquire food, before and during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Guided by constructivist grounded theory, the study provides detailed accounts of poverty, cumulative life events, and coping strategies, contributing contextual knowledge to debates on food insecurity and social inequity.