SFTIA Represented Itself for First Time During Terra Madre 2016

Indigenous
voices from across Turtle Island were heard during Terra Madre and Salone del
Gusto in Torino, Italy this past September.
Slow
Food Turtle Island Association is a new regional chapter of Slow Food that
includes indigenous members from Canada, the United States of America, Mexico
and South America. SFTIA proudly gathered to represent ourselves for the first
time as a region at Terra Madre, discuss the future of the chapter and to share
our various cultures and foods with the international community.
“Terra Madre 2016 marked the
first time when indigenous peoples of North America were represented as our own
association,” Lorraine Kahneratokwas Gray said. “I was proud to be a part of
this historic effort led by Winona LaDuke and a delegation of indigenouss
people who met for years to achieve this goal.”
SFTIA member Gray – a Mohawk,
Turtle Clan farmer who is the Executive Director for the non-profit
organization Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute – has thrice been a
delegate for Terra Madre. LaDuke and Gray are two members of a group of SFTIA
founders, having first participated as delegates during the 2006 Terra Madre.
SFTIA
began as an effort to join various indigenous nations together, who are often
connected by cultural similarities, traditional crops, music, dance and
creation stories.
“We
wanted to be politically ‘ourselves’ because we do not fit in the United
States, we do not fit into Canada – those are awkward, colonial things that
have been put upon us, and we predate those countries,” LaDuke said.
As
a member of both SFTIA and Slow Food Urban San Diego, I – like many other
native people – straddle two worlds: the traditional native culture that I grew
up in, and the modern community where I live, grow and cook food.
The
origin of the name “Turtle Island” comes from the origin story of some
indigenous cultures – where a woman fell from the Skyworld and landed on a
turtle’s back. In the Kanien:kehaka (Mohawk) version of the story, she then
created the Earth using mud that was brought up from the sea floor by an otter.

Our
first appearance at Terra Madre as a regional association proved to be a
successful one. Delegates and visitors from around the world flooded our booth,
eager to learn more about our traditional farming practices, cuisine and music.
There
was also, in the words of Gray, an “outpouring of support in stopping the
Dakota Access Pipeline,” with the international community asking for
information about the situation and what they could do to help.
For
the North American, indigenous nations DAPL represents one more wave of
colonialism, and yet another way that our traditional growing practices could
potentially be further diminished. As LaDuke said in her speech “food is this
excellent opportunity to decolonize yourself.”
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