KU to host summit on Indigenous food sovereignty

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Office of Sovereign Partnerships & Indigenous Initiatives will host a daylong summit in the Sovereign Futures Series centered on Indigenous food sovereignty

The Sept. 16 event, free and open to the public, will take place at the Lied Center of Kansas. Participants should register to attend by Sept. 4.

Highlights include a keynote by KU and Haskell Indian Nations University alumna Lois Stevens (Oneida Nation), assistant professor of First Nations studies and the First Nations Education Doctoral Program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She will present “Nurturing Sovereignty In-Community.” 

Panels throughout the day will highlight scholars, practitioners, students and leaders across the region and nation:

• Food as Medicine
• Indigenous Food Systems at the Roots
• Seed Sovereignty
• Farms Feed the World: The Work of the North Dakota NSF AgTech Engine.

The event also will feature a screening of “Seed Warriors,” a short documentary by Rebekka Schlichting, KU assistant professor of journalism (Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska).

The event is inspired by the research of KU graduate students Kelly Nalani Beym (Diné), a Self Graduate Fellow and doctoral student in geography, and Star Her Many Horses (Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma), a master’s student in Indigenous studies.

The potential for this summit is tremendous, according to Beym, whose research explores pathways to self-governance that build upon existing traditional food systems and honor Indigenous ancestral knowledge.

“I study federal policy’s impact on tribal hunger and nutrition assistance, and food sovereignty is central to the protection of those rights to food," Beym said. "Since KU is not a land-grant institution and does not have agricultural degree programs, we have a unique opportunity to enhance the conversation around what food sovereignty is and can be.

“By gathering tribal leaders, experts and knowledge holders across domains, this summit provides a knowledge sharing opportunity for people to learn about how to become more active participants in our foodscape,” Beym said.

A member of the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Consortium, Her Many Horses focuses on tribal food systems in her research, specifically by building connections between Indigenous land stewardship practices and western academic soil sciences.

“Food sovereignty and tribal food systems touch on multiple realms of what communal well-being really is,” she said. “Our food systems recognize the importance of cultural and physical relationships to land and their influences on nutrition. This event allows us to expand our understanding of what food sovereignty is and how to develop connections to support one another.”

In addition to presentations throughout the day, a resource and demonstration fair will feature experts, practitioners and tribal leaders sharing a variety of traditional agricultural practices and food processing methods. See a full schedule of events.

Related programming will feature the work of Hollie Mackey (Northern Cheyenne), CEO of ND AgTech Engine, whose work through the National Science Foundation initiative empowers tribal nations, small farmers and rural communities through scalable, localized food systems that address both regional and global challenges.

Mackey will offer a public talk in the Sovereign Futures Series at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 in the Haskell Indian Nations University auditorium. She will present “Imagining A Food Sovereignty Future: Integrating Technology, Agriculture, and Indigenous Ingenuity to Drive Tribal Prosperity.”

Support for the summit is provided by the Office of Sovereign Partnerships & Indigenous Initiatives, the Indigenous Studies Program, The Commons, the National Science Foundation and North Dakota Ag Tech Engine.