Consumable Indigeneity: A Visual Strategy in the Promotion of Natural Products

Central to this paper is to offer an assessment of the notion of indigeneity as a visual reference in the promotion of food natural products. The underlying premise is that widespread assumptions about indigenous epistemologies are manipulated to increase the marketability of items destined for human consumption. To varying extents and in varying ways, a(n) (obscure) link between the products in question and ‘unpolluted’ native communities allegedly legitimize claims about their purity, freshness and wholesomeness. By using social media posts, YouTube videos, advertisement ads and food packaging designs as main objects of study, this paper focuses on the visuality of indigeneity as a marketing strategy for a certain line of food products. As I intend to show, visual codes are used to suggest connections between contents of the products, Indigenous knowledge and health-promoting properties.