On April 7th at 12pm, EST, Ash McLeod will be defending her dissertation: “Toward a Decolonial Cuisine: The Entangled Politics of Food Revitalization in Native-led Culinary Organizations.” For information on attending, please contact the Department of Anthropology via email: deborah.bolnick@uconn.edu.

 

Below is Ash’s overview of the dissertation.

“Over the last decade, Native American chefs have begun to garner more attention for their food and food justice work. In doing so, these chefs are positioning themselves as culinary tastemakers by (re)interpreting and (re)defining what Indigenous food is for their communities and a largely non-Native public. With culinary philosophies strongly aligned with community engagement and decolonization efforts, many of these Indigenous chefs and their employees are demonstrating public commitments to a variety of social justice pursuits.

This dissertation follows the efforts of employees at two Minneapolis-based Indigenous culinary organizations—NĀTIFS, a culinary education non-profit, and Owamni, a James Beard award-winning restaurant—as well as the work of four Native chefs from Colorado, California, and Utah. This project, rooted in participatory and decolonial methodologies, involved working with NĀTIFS and Owamni for two and a half years as a cook, front-of-house employee, and researcher. My research examines how they are utilizing a variety of methods to internally decolonize their culinary offerings and business practices while supporting collective efforts toward food justice. It has culminated in a rich body of information on the personal motivations, philosophies, and roles of these chef-activists working in Native culinary spaces.

This dissertation further examines how consumers and community members are engaging with these Indigenous foods and Indigenous food producers. Throughout this examination, I ask the question—what are the entanglements and tensions within and between the place-based projects of Indigenous food producers, their customers, contemporary visions of culinary entrepreneurship, and the agendas of community members and activists? Native culinary organizations exist at a tenuous crossroads, for they occupy political spaces as expressions of Indigenous identity and decolonization, and yet, the businesses are also subject to colonial capitalist market demands. As these organizations find widespread mainstream success, they are also criticized for their specific “decolonial” methods. In examining the “entanglements” and “friction” produced in this emerging arena, this dissertation offers new insights into how Indigenous foods, culinary organizations, and identities are being defined and challenged by food producers and customers alike. How these interactions are navigated has implications for the longevity of Native businesses and decolonial food justice” (Ash McLeod).