Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are some of the speakers that will be at Food Tank and Arizona State University’s (ASU) “The Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways” Summit. 

• How can funders help support other events that highlight indigenous voices and culture? 

• Learn how to invest in Native American food systems. 

Food Tank and Arizona State University’s (ASU) “The Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways” Summit on January 22, 2020, is convening native voices and food system leaders to help bring Indigenous knowledge to the forefront of conversations on food system transformation. The evening event is held in collaboration with the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at ASU and the Sustainable Community Food Systems Program at the University of Hawai’i, West O’ahu.

Topics of discussion will range from biodiversity and wild foods to landrace property rights, as well as shine light on innovation within Indigenous communities. Speakers include Janie Simms Hipp, President & CEO of Native American Agriculture Fund and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation; Melissa Nelson, Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians; and Kamuela Enos, Director of Social Enterprise at MA’O Organic Farm.

Learn more about the speakers below (alphabetical order):

Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham, Chancellor, University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu

Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham began serving as the University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu chancellor on January 1, 2017. A kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) scholar and teacher, Benham previously served as the inaugural dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at UH Mānoa (2008–2016).

Twila Cassadore, San Carlos Apache, Arizona

Cassadore has been working with San Carlos Apache, White Mountain Apache, and Yavapi peoples over the past 25 years, conducting interviews with elders to bring information back into the community to address health and social problems. Cassadore described the importance of foods like grass seeds and acorn seeds to the diets of Apaches before people were moved onto reservations and became reliant on rations, and later, commodities.

Read the full article about summit on indigenous foods by Emily Payne at Food Tank.