— Tamra Adams

And this is a great question because to enter generational. Question, right? We can't forget about the youth and and how we're bringing in. the future of our of our people of of those who you know are also affected by our work environment and And you know just this what we're talking about today. So if you could respond to that. Yeah, thank you for that question. I think growing up on the res is very difficult. I think themes of Injustice and oppression or magnified and to us it feels normal. It's not until you step outside. Of the environment and you have access to education or you have access to care you have access to peace that you realize how tough it is coming from a marginalized group like the Bible community. And I think this makes this really makes me think of stressing today as we wrap up that chefs and practitioners really take a look a deep dive from an indigenous. point of view the theme of historical trauma because America is a culture as a world power was founded on a cultural violence. And when we were when we opened up and we're talking about that, it's not just because we're nitpicking. We got a bone to pick or an ax to grind. Yeah, those might be true. But the true historical fact of how we've evolved as a country in North America and how kitchens have all globally it does include these things if chefs if we're truly gonna understand how we can make an impact in public health in epidemiology and nutrition and in cultural revitalization. We really have to be sensitive to these themes of recovery because if we're gonna continue to shift our kitchens and meet people where they're at. That's one of my favorite themes is because not all people have the opportunity to have these discussions. Some of us are so busy living under oppression living in poverty. Some of us are so busy. Just surviving living paycheck to paycheck that we don't have the time or the luxury to have intellectual conversations. We don't have the time or the ability. To sit and talk about food security or where we are in the food chain or the supply chain. We're just we're just, you know kind of living in survival mode. So I think when you take a real strong look at Cuisines of the world, you're gonna see indigenous cultivars as a foundational part of that not just in the United States for me as as the native as an indigenous Native American Chef. I always tell people that foundational tehuar of all Contemporary American Cooking is Native American Cuisine is indigenous Landscapes. Um, so you can't continue to miss appropriate or continue this keep feeding this monster that is colonialism and pretending that these histories are not there on these histories are the reasons. We're having these conversations. Now these histories are the reason we see black lives matter talking about police brutality talking about cultures of violence talking about public health. It's because the truth is coming to light. And so I want to stress that those themes are true these when we have when you're in these conversations and it feels uncomfortable really take a moment to ask yourself. Why am I feeling uncomfortable? When we talk about themes of Public Health racism discrimination prejudice. Toxic masculinity if we're feeling very uncomfortable with it. It's because we're not wanting to address it. We refuse to change we might be complacent to cultures of violence. So it's it's a deep dive if we're gonna we're gonna take the first step as individual practitioners whether we're 18 years old just starting out in school or we're in our 40s 50s or 60s and we've been doing this all our lives. It is never too late to enter into recovery. And there is one tool that comes to mind that. You could probably take a look at as a practitioner. There's a there's a study that was done years ago and it's it's called the the a study or it's a Aces adverse childhood experiences. And this study was done over the course of like almost 30 years and it kind of looked at the upbringing of a wide range of young people from one years old all the way to 18 years old and this is a tool a predictor in mental health. For health disparities like smoking addiction incarceration cancer diabetes obesity heart disease so you can go online and there's there's a multitude of resources to learn about Aces. And you can know your Ace score and you know, it's a very useful tool. None of this is to blame anyone it's just to put the facts on the table and sort it out. Like you need some plus you can move forward. It's kind of like, you know for me, it's been a great tool to to work out my mental emotional these um So in having these conversations take take a look and expand the expand the Paradigm include themes of justice and Reclamation and you know, it's it's a worthwhile Journey. I'm you know, I'm very much very proud to be a chef. I love this. I've gotten into it. I still honor and respect some of the core themes of my early training as a young chef, but I'm excited to be a part of this generation that is making some changes emotionally intellectually with the next 10 20 30 40 50 years in mind. So that's kind of what I have to say. Oh and one other thing if some of the themes that Chef Chris and I are talking about today are interesting and you want to take a deeper look at some of the themes of historical trauma go and watch the film gather it wanna James Beard. It's on Netflix. We have no idea would reach that. Are but it's a very human story and it's a microcosm those of us that are in that film. There's the struggle is is global indigenous communities communities of poverty marginalized groups. We're all in the same struggle to situate ourselves and our perspectives in a larger Narrative of Cuisine and cooking because food is life. So that's what I have to say.

Ace Response

The film "Gather"