Native foods & foodways: Insight from Winona LaDuke
“Food has a culture. It has history. It has stories, it has relations, that tie us to our food. ”
I came across this 2012 TEDxTalk from Winona LaDuke, environmentalist, native rights advocate and food sovereignty/justice activist...and author of my favorite book. She's an inspiring, insightful individual and a badass. What I've learned from LaDuke and in my research on Teton/Lakota foodways is that traditional foods concerns all of us. It's about preserving, conserving and upholding genetic and biological diversity. It's about reclaiming our food system through or in conjunction with learning to respect traditional food culture and wisdom and making us more intuitive, respectful eaters and citizens of the earth. It's about taking pride in yourself, your work and your unique culture through food. Watch and listen to her talk below, and be sure to check out the White Earth Land Recovery Project and Native Harvest to learn more.
Eating indigenously changes diets and lives of Native Americans | Al Jazeera America
Such a terrific, hopeful and exciting article! I'm devoting my graduate capstone to studying Lakota foodways, including a bioregional and historical overview of past and present subsistence patterns. Food is and should be more than a fundamental right among native cultures and people. It should also serve as a way to revive and retain important cultural traditions and as a means to building resilient, healthy communities.
In other words: good, just food can save the world!!! (Thanks, Bryan, for the link!)
“‘The strong tie to your land influences your political system and your religious system and your social system,’ Romero said. ‘The idea was if we had kids reconnecting to traditional foods they would be reconnecting to all these other institutions that make our community.’”
