ḥačatakma c̓awaak (Everything is interconnected)

Gender, Indigenous food sovereignty, and decolonizing foodways

Hi there, and welcome to our fourth issue, EARTH.

Rich and diverse like healthy soil, EARTH brings talented voices together on indigenous food sovereignty, queer utopias, Californian cuisine, energy justice, Black agriculture, and restoring ancestral connections. It will unfurl slowly over the next three months. We invite you to get in touch with us about the small worlds it will bring to life — what they made you think about, and how they made you feel. Expect to hear from us again at the end of the season to take stock of what’s sprouted.

To kick the issue off, we have ḥačatakma c̓awaak (Everything is interconnected), a new episode of our podcast where editor Isabela sits down with Charlotte Coté, Professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington and author of A Drum in One Hand, A Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast. 

They discuss the role of gender in Indigenous food sovereignty in both the past and present, the risks of “culinary imperialism” in blanket calls to veganize our diets, how social media enables Indigenous peoples to tell their own stories about food, and the ways that going back to the land with a “colonized” mindset can lead to missed opportunities for true connection.

Listen now on our podcast or in the audio track below.

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we brought you our first issue, MILK. EARTH is the last of the first four issues we initially conceptualized and it’s such a joy to be putting it out there. Pitches for our fifth issue, CITY, will be opening very soon, so keep an eye out.

We’re so grateful to everyone who has chosen to support our work financially; know that we couldn’t do it without you!

New to FFJ? Check out our previous issues MILK, WAR, and SEX. 

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ḥačatakma c̓awaak (Everything is interconnected)

Credits

This episode features research and writing by Isabela Vera; sound editing by Isabela Vera & Zoë Johnson; and original music by the Electric Muffin Research Kitchen.

Transcript

Full transcript of the podcast available here.

Shownotes and further resources

Coté, C (2022). A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast. University of Washington Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv289dw4p

Coté, C. (2022, Oct 17). ḥačatakma c̓awaak (everything is interconnected). Indigenous food sovereignty, health, resilience and sustainability. Talk given at President’s Dream Colloquium on Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Perspectives on Sustainability and Resilience. Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre, Vancouver.

Coté, C. (2022, Oct 6). “c̓uumaʕas. The River that Runs through Us”. Talk given at the Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

Coté, C. (2022, Sep 28). UO Today interview: Charlotte Coté (Tseshaht First Nation), Amer. Indian Studies, University of Washington. University of Oregon.

Coté, C. (2022, March 16). Exploring Indigenous Food Sovereignty with Dr. Charlotte Coté. MOHAI History Café. Download program transcript: https://adobe.ly/3PGcnPs

Coté, C. (2022, March 3). Charlotte Coté with Dana Arviso: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the NW Town Hall Seattle.

Coté, C. (2019). hishuk’ish tsawalk—Everything is One: Revitalizing Place-Based Indigenous Food Systems through the Enactment of Food Sovereignty. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(A), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.09A.003

Nast, C. (2020, November 8). This Inuk Throat Singer is Bringing Cultural Pride to TikTok. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/shina-novalinga-indigenous-inuk-throat-singer-tiktok