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Indigenous people have been underrepresented in the land they’ve inhabited for generations. There has been some recent progress on that front though. From James Beard Award winner and Indigenous restaurant owner Sherry Pocknett to Oscar-nominated actress Lily Gladstone, Indigenous people are seeing more attention on their culture.
Even with the increased visibility, one woman who grew up in Crownpoint, New Mexico, and has lived in Albuquerque for 10 years is looking to take things a step further.
Andi Murphy (Diné), host and founder of the Toasted Sister podcast and producer of the radio show Native America Calling, is launching the first Taste of Decolonization food and poetry festival in Old Town as a way to spread the knowledge of Indigenous traditions and culture. The event coincides with the Gathering of Nations.
Murphy wants to expand knowledge of Indigenous tradition and culture by using something that everyone likes—food—albeit without use of arguably the most well-known Indigenous foods.
While enjoyed by many, fry bread has an oppressive past. When Indigenous people were uprooted from their homes and forced to relocate from their homeland, the land they moved to could not easily support the growth of their food staples. The government gave them rations such as flour, processed sugar and lard—the main ingredients to fry bread.
Even though fry bread is stereotypically tied to Indigenous culture, it’s been blamed for contributing to high levels of diabetes and obesity, and Murphy believes it is time to change the script.
“For a long time, the poster child, the main example of Native American food, has been fry bread. We’re going beyond that, because fry bread has had its time. It took over the narrative for way too long,” says Murphy. “There’s no one or two or three dishes that are the definition of Indigenous food. I want people to take away from this festival that we all have different stories to tell.”
Murphy’s admiration for food goes back more than a decade to when she was a food writer for the Las Cruces Sun-News.
“From there is really when I fell in love with food,” says Murphy. “I just kind of got obsessed with it and started learning about the people’s culture that comes with it.”
In 2014, Murphy became the producer of the radio show Native America Calling and started to direct her attention to Indigenous foods. Since then, Murphy has been recognized as a journalistic voice on the Native American food movement and participated in numerous culinary events as a speaker and moderator.
Murphy had been cooking up the idea of a food festival for a while. She says even though she’s seen numerous conferences focused on Indigenous food, she’s never seen a full-on festival celebrating traditional eats.
“It was coming up on my third year of just wishing for an Indigenous food festival like this to happen,” she says. “I thought, ‘You know what? I should just do it myself.’”
She started to talk to different Native groups, non profit organizations and businesses around Albuquerque and nothing was catching—until she met Liz Gaylor, owner of Tiny Grocer ABQ in Old Town. The two started to develop a friendship and Gaylor would eventually invite Murphy to do a live recording of Toasted Sister at Tiny Grocer ABQ. Through their friendship, the two discovered a shared interest in doing something to put Indigenous food in the limelight.
“We talked about it and then we just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it,’” says Murphy.
Gaylor offered to host the event at her store and the event has blossomed since the first day of planning, according to Murphy. She’s been able to book some of the best Indigenous chefs and poets to show off their craft.
She originally envisioned a two-day event where folks could try different Indigenous foods that are rarely available in the city, but ended up adding a third day focused on a ticketed, multi-course dinner.
The ticketed dinner will include multiple courses prepared by a team of chefs, led by Justin Pioche (Diné), owner of the Navajo-owned and operated Pioche Food Group. Pioche and his group of chefs will create multiple courses made up of ingredients from the Navajo Nation. Pioche, however, wants to keep the menu under wraps so as to not ruin the surprise for the guests.
“For our dinners, we never really revealed the menu until the night before or the night of the event,” Pioche says.
The other two days will bring together Indigenous chefs from New Mexico and surrounding states to celebrate and showcase the many different flavors of Indigenous cuisine.
Some of the booths will include small plates and samples prepared by Ray Naranjo of Española’s Manko: Native American Fusion, Lois Ellen Frank and Walter Whitewater of Santa Fe’s Red Mesa Cuisine and the students of Navajo Technical University’s culinary arts program.
Throughout the event, Indigenous poets will read some of their food-centered work. The idea of bringing poetry into the festival was not something on the forefront of the organizers’ minds, but the idea grew and flourished with the rest of the festival planning.
“I don’t know whose idea that was. But honestly, truly, I’m not a big fan of poetry at all,” says Murphy.
Murphy may not be the biggest fan of poetry, but for years she has taken time to research and learn about many poems that feature food for her podcast and radio show. So much so that she recorded an episode of Toasted Sister entirely dedicated to food-centric poetry.
A zine focused on Indigenous food poetry will also make its debut at the festival and will include poetry and artwork from Native writers from across the country.
Murphy says she wants to give attendees more than just an opportunity to try different food.
“I hope people see the diversity we have in Indigenous food, flavor, and ingredients,” Murphy says. “I also want to uplift Native food businesses.”
The multi-course ticketed dinner is set for April 25 starting at 5pm. Following will be the Indigenous Food and Poetry event that takes place April 26 and 27, from 4 to 10pm at Tiny Grocer ABQ in Old Town Albuquerque.
Taste of Decolonization: Indigenous Food & Poetry
tasteofdecolonization.wordpress.com
Ticketed multi-course dinner
April 25, 5pm
$200
Food and poetry festival
April 26 and 27, 4pm to 10pm
$10 entry, $5 per small plate
Tiny Grocer ABQ
1919 Old Town Rd NW #6
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