Celebrate Native American Food Producers with Shared Community Meal, October 20th

All are invited to deepen their appreciation of Native foods by sharing a meal where all ingredients are sourced from Native American producers.

“To have community we must share a meal.” Hinkigowi, We Feast Together, Sunday, October 20th, brings this core value to the forefront in this Native foodways project. Participants will not only deepen their understanding and appreciation of Native foods but also learn how to explore food from their own local communities to learn more about their own identities. This project received an Opportunity Grant to bring native and non-native communities to the table to share a meal completely sourced from Native food producers and harvesters. Community members will have an opportunity to prepare and cook the dinner, while Rubina Martini, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation as well as Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, researches and visits Wisconsin Native producers to gather ingredients. 

Rubina Martini owns PROCESS, a sustainable general store in downtown Stevens Point. This year the store expanded their Native American food market that provides Native foods from Native producers. “While sourcing and building out our Native food market I realized the best way to talk about these culturally rich foods was over a shared meal.” says Rubina. Rubina partnered with Central Rivers Farmshed, a non-profit in Stevens Point, to host this meal for approximately 100 participants. Farmshed has hosted many meals over the years through their In My _____ Kitchen series. This dinner is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Wisconsin. 

Hinkigowi is part of a weeklong series of programs participating in the Wisconsin Science Festival, a statewide event held October 14-20th. This year's theme of the festival is Agriculture. Rubina partnered up with Brigid Ferkett, Outreach Specialist at UWSP Museum of Natural History, to feature the Bison and Native American foods as a central theme in their collaborative programming. Partners include the UWSP Native American Center which is hosting Misty Cook to talk about Native American medicines from the Stockbridge Munsee Tribe. UWSP Natural History Museum will be hosting two free programs that week, a storytime and an evening program. There will also be a screening of the documentary film Bring Them Home at the DUC Theatre on Saturday the 19th. Bound to Happen Books, located downtown Stevens Point, will have a Native American featured collection of books both in store and for sale at the Hinkigowi event on the 20th. 

This community event will be held on Sunday, October 20th from 3-6pm at the Central Wisconsin Environmental Station located 10186 County Rd MM, Amherst Junction, WI 54407 in Sunset Lodge. Tickets are for sale on the PROCESS website at https://lowwaste.shop/products/hinkigowi. Everyone must pre-register. We are inviting all Native Americans/Indigenous community members to the table free of charge. Children under 11 are also free. Tickets are $40 for non-Native participants and $20 for youth 12-18. If you are interested in volunteering we would love to have you, please reach us at https://forms.gle/zqFpmkSSMHabhBrB7

Follow along with Rubina Martini as she travels around collecting foods and stories: instagram.com/theirnameis_rue/ or stay tuned https://www.facebook.com/CentralRiversFarmshed for more information.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Wisconsin Humanities Minor Opportunity Grant. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.