• Echidna (Fae/Faer) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    I remember when this came up a few years ago on Twitter. There are First Nations restaurants, most (white) people just don’t go to them and where they are. Yes there are not a lot, it would be much better if there was more. The reason there isn’t is because of colonization and genocide.

    But we also have to be careful because presenting a minority group as already extinct exists to help continue the perpetuation of the genocide. As Judith Butler describes.

    An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all’

    There is a surviving first nations food culture that doesn’t care whether Patrick Blumenthal has eaten it or not.

    Also First Nations food has been heavily assimilated to into many cultures food. Mexican Food, Peruvian Food, etc When people eat these foods they don’t think of it’s relationship to First Nations, but there’s a connection.

    Finally stuff like corn, tomatoes, potatoes all of this food that is widespread everywhere is from North and South America and only hits Europe and Asia in the early modern period. What is and isn’t a certain cultures food is not static but subject to forces of history.

    • rektdeckard@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There’s a native restaurant near me that is kinda like the equivalent of Chipotle for American Indian cuisine, and it’s fantastic. The owners are members of the Osage Nation and have had a few restaurants since the 90s. Really happy for them that they recently expanded to also have a food truck and catering business, as well as a little satellite location at a nearby ski mountain.

      I can’t do much to help undo the genocide and cultural erasure, but I damn well take everybody I know to that restaurant.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        If I knew of one, I’d totally try it out, but the reservations in my area are a bit out of the way, and I don’t see any obvious native restaurants.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      2 days ago

      "But we also have to be careful because presenting a minority group as already extinct exists to help continue the perpetuation of the genocide. As Judith Butler describes.

        An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all'
      

      Thank you so much for this reminder; because of this, I have realised that this is a trap that my thoughts sometimes slip into. Hopefully I will be able to be mindful of it and check myself in future