Welcome back to the Port Pearl's Almanac. I'm your host, Andy, and today we're talking about food and why food sovereignty is so

important by looking at a project called the decolonization diet, overseen by Dr. Martin

Reinhart from the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University, and was

supported by the USFS and Cedar Tree Institute. The Decolonizing Diet Project is an exploratory study

of the relationship between people and indigenous foods of the Great Lakes region. Very few

studies have ever been conducted on the subject matter and studies that examine the physical,

cultural, and legal dimensions are practically non-existent. This research explored not just how to

eat as people on the landscape 8 in the past, but it looked to see how to integrate this past

with the present. And to see how a diet framed in native berries, leeks, wild game, whitefish,

maple syrup, wild rice, and much, much more, change the quality of living for its

participants. This was an exciting and inspiring conversation, and it's one I think you guys will

enjoy.

Marty, thanks so much for joining us. Tell us a little bit about yourself and this decolonization

diet project.

Yeah, glad to be here, Andy. I'll introduce myself traditionally first. Wabanong

me, me, she, kiyok, Kiyok, Dijidak, Dijitak, Ojibwe, and Aul, Kichayna, Zbing,

and Dading. So it's important that we introduce ourselves in a traditional way.

That way we're acknowledging we're from here. You know, and I think that when people are so fond of land acknowledgments today,

I think sometimes they lack a sense of what it actually means, you know, especially to the indigenous folks who are from the places that, you know, other people may be starting to recognize the

indigenousity, but, you know, we've long recognized our identity goes very deep in these,

in these lands. And so I think that's an important way to start. And what I said is my name

in Anishina Bamawan, our native language, and that's a hot coming down out of the eastern sky is my traditional name when it's translated into English.

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