Following the tracks: nutrition transition for Indigenous Peoples in Australia

The nutrition transition, originally described by Popkin in 1993, tracks the shift from traditional to industrialised dietary patterns and is widely used to explain rising non-communicable disease burdens globally. Importantly, the framework situates dietary change within broader social, economic, and environmental systems rather than individual behavioural choices. However, Indigenous, traditional, tribal, and marginalised communities often experience more rapid and severe forms of this transition, resulting in a disproportionate burden of diet-related disease compared to non-Indigenous populations within the same national contexts. This narrative review examines the nutrition transition among Indigenous communities in Australia, arguing that it cannot be understood through conventional models alone but must be situated within the historical and ongoing processes of colonisation. While the global nutrition transition framework attributes dietary change to urbanisation, economic growth, and globalisation, this study demonstrates that in Indigenous Australia the transition has been rapid, imposed, and structurally driven by land dispossession, disruption of traditional food systems, and the erosion of Indigenous knowledge systems. Drawing on international literature, the paper highlights consistent patterns across Indigenous and traditional communities worldwide, where shifts from traditional diets toward ultra-processed foods and market-based diets are closely tied to colonial histories and the prevalence of a double burden of malnutrition and rising non-communicable diseases. In response, this paper proposes a reframing of the nutrition transition in Indigenous Australia, centring colonisation as its primary driver and advocating for an Indigenous-led framework grounded in cultural, ecological, and relational understandings of health and identity. It concludes that addressing current nutrition challenges requires moving beyond individualised and biomedical approaches toward restoring food sovereignty, revitalising Indigenous knowledge systems, and re-establishing relationships between people, Country, and food.