LACS Decolonizing Food Workshop at HWFC
A group of 20 UAlbany students from a Department of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies class perform a decolonizing food workshop led by instructor and LACS PhD Candidate Cassandra Andrusz-Ho Ching, inside the community kitchen at the Honest Weight Co-Op with the goal to rethink how recipes have been influenced by colonization and neo-colonialism.
See Photos from the Workshop (taken by Patrick Dodson)
About the Workshop
Decolonization is the unending, ever changing and imperfect process of delinking from colonial knowledge, practices and culture, and practice of everyday acts of resurgence and reclamation of indigenous knowledge, culture and ways of life. Gray and Patel (2016) explain “decolonization is not a static end-goal that orders strategies and tactics, but rather a daily mode of resistance— food systems practices informed by a vision of democratic engagement and historical experiences of resistance.”
Decolonizing food then, is a
• Process of rethinking foods and food ways history and entanglement with colonization and neo colonial power.
• Daily resistance, a reclamation of indigenous knowledge, culture and ways of life.
• Understanding food as a site for de/colonial struggles and strategies to liberate our diets from colonial relationships of production and consumption. (Luz&Rueda-Esquivel, 2015)
How is this workshop designed? As an instructor, I employ a Social Justice Framework.
A Social Justice Framework is a set of strategies that actively addresses the dynamics of oppression, privilege, and isms. It pays attention to how people, policies, practices and institutions may be used to liberate rather than oppress.
These strategies can include but not limited to the following
• Guiding students [and often being guided by students] in critical self-reflection of their socialization into this matrix of unequal relationships.
• Promoting awareness of injustices through content AND providing students tools to work toward social justice and empowerment to change the world. (Guthrie, 2019)
• Dialogue focused on critical thinking and reflection on personal experiences and experiences of others.
• Examination of oppressive mechanisms and the ability to challenge these hierarchies.
In this workshop, students will be able to…
1 Build confidence and empathy through identity, culture, communal development.
2 Identify and examine a special meal/food items to decolonize
3 Consider and discuss (in)justices in the food system (past and present)
4 Disseminate their work/discussions with others to promote education and awareness on decolonizing food.
5 Empower students to be knowledge producers and active agents in their own learning.
6 Strengthen students’ commitment to social justice through creative, culturally relevant, community-based leadership education.
7 Equip students with the knowledge, behavior, and skills needed to transform society into a place where social justice can exist.