Cultivating Community Comfort Foods

Dr. Keitlyn Alcantara, an anthropological bioarcheologist in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University—Bloomington, will led us through how foodways can serve as a powerful entry point into conversations about systemic and historic inequity, as well as systems of collective care. She emphasized the importance of a concept of health that is deeply connected to representation, visibility, and connection. Using the Restorative Foodways Project as a case study, she presented an example of culturally diverse community meals centered on storytelling, memory and identity as a way to celebrate individual lived experiences and strategies of survival.

Dr. Alcantara recommends learning more by reading these books:

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Erin Wall Kimmerer
• Native Foodways: Indigenous North American Religious Traditions and Foods edited by Michelene Pensantubbee and Michael Zogry
• The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor 
• Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings
• The Color of Food by Natasha Bowens

Restorative Foodways Project: https://www.healinggardeniub.com/restorative-foodways-project-2020-2021