New Treatied Spaces

Historic Houses, Global Crossroads: PI, Joy Porter. Co-I, Olwen Purdue

A new collaborative project in development seeking to link two U.K. historic houses and unlock the visitor and research potential of their Indigenous, Asian, Arctic & Library material culture. Associated Collaborative Doctoral Award.

Food Is Our Medicine: Advancing Food Sovereignty, Health & Wellbeing Via Haudenosaunee-Hull Community Research: PI, Joy Porter | Co-I Mariaelena Huambachano | Co-I, Thozhukat Sathyapalan

It is rarely acknowledged that most of the food we eat, such as corn, beans, potatoes and tomatoes, is Indigenous. Food and plant-growing wisdom is a foundational gift the modern world has received from Indigenous peoples. The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday speaks to a history of acute non-Indigenous dependence on Indigenous food preservation for survival, but few are aware of the breadth and scope of Indigenous knowledge about the growing, preparation and preservation of the main foodstuffs that underpin human survival.
 
In response, this interdisciplinary project sets out to re-centre intergenerational Indigenous knowledge about food and its stories and to advance practical transnational learning within the international movement for food sovereignty. The drive for food sovereignty concerns the right of peoples to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound, sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.
 
This collaboration brings together Indigenous scholars, food producers and chefs from the Seneca Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of the Northeastern U.S. and scholars, farmers, chefs and community members from one of the U.K.’s most food-deprived inner-city areas, the wards surrounding Marfleet, Hull. Our team’s collective ambition is to transform the non-Indigenous world’s relationship with food as simply for nutrition or taste. Instead, we will demonstrate how practical engagement with growing, preparing and preserving and with food provenance, journeys and stories can connect people to place and foster positive mental and physical health impacts.
 
The team will collaborate with the Hull-York Diabetes Centre to advance patient-care objectives for Type 2 diabetes, prevalent amongst both Seneca and inner-city Hull communities.

Preview for a presentation on Food Sovereignty and the power of Indigenous planting: