Devon Mihesuah: Reimagining Food via Multi-Generational & Experiential Learning in the Natural World

HMM producer Anna Steltenkamp speaks with Devon Mihesuah. Devon is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and is the Cora Lee Beers Price Teaching Professor in International Cultural Understanding at the University of Kansas. Anna speaks with her about the book she co-edited with Elizabeth Hoover, entitled: “Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health.” Devon is also the author of the book “Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness,” and the revised edition was just released this year.

This is the second segment in a multi-part dialogue with Devon Mihesuah. In this segment, Devon speaks about how to conceptually reimagine food as more than just a commodity. She proposes that food provides more than just biological nourishment, for it also gives us cultural, ecological, and spiritual nourishment. Also, she addresses the importance of learning about food in a multi-generational and experiential manner within the natural world. In this manner, one may develop an emotional connection with the natural world and learn how to act respectfully within, and how to understand the rhythms of, the natural world.