Gather is an intimate portrait of a growing movement amongst Indigenous Americans to reclaim their spiritual and cultural identities through obtaining sovereignty over their ancestral food systems, while struggling to heal from the historical trauma brought on by centuries of genocide.

An indigenous chef embarks on an ambitious project to reclaim ancient food ways on the Apache reservation; in South Dakota, a gifted Lakota high school student, raised on a buffalo ranch, is proving her tribes' native wisdom through her passion for science; and a group of young men of the Yurok tribe in Northern California is struggling to keep their culture alive and rehabilitate the habitat of their sacred salmon. All these stories combine to show how the reclaiming and recovery of ancient food ways is a way forward for Native Americans to bring back health and vitality to their people.

Film starts at 6:30 pm EST, followed by a live post-viewing discussion.

Please RSVP to receive a link to watch the film and join us at the post-viewing discussion with Beth Draper and cast members Twila Cassadore (San Carlos Apache Tribe Elder, healer and wisdom keeper)and Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache Tribe Indigenous healing foods chef and founder of the Native American Culinary Association) to learn how COVID is directly impacting the food sovereignty movement and about local ways that First Nation Peoples are reclaiming their cultural heritage through food sovereignty.

Hosted by the Nelson Congregational Church and Good Earth & Sky, this GATHER Watch Party is FREE, and any donations will help support more of these educational events.

Recommended Organizations:

Gather Film is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.

Gather follows Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation (Arizona), opening an indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation (South Dakota), conducting landmark studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.

Seeding Sovereignty is an Indigenous-led collective, working on behalf of our global community to shift social and environmental paradigms by dismantling colonial institutions and replacing them with Indigenous practices created in synchronicity with the land.

First Nations Development Institute works to build & revitalize Native American communities & economies. First Nations Development Institute believes Native Peoples hold the capacity and ingenuity to ensure the sustainable, economic, spiritual and cultural well-being of their communities. They invest in and create innovative institutions and models that strengthen asset control and support economic development for American Indian people and their communities.

North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NāTIFS) promotes Indigenous foodways education and facilitates Indigenous food access. Founded by James Beard award winner The Sioux Chef, NāTIFS is dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.

Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance is dedicated to restoring the food systems that support Indigenous self-determination, wellness, cultures, values, communities, economies, languages, and families while rebuilding relationships with the land, water, plants, and animals that sustain us. They work to put the farmers, wild-crafters, fishers, hunters, ranchers, and eaters at the center of decision-making on policies, strategies and natural resource management.

Native Land Digital strives to map Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see the history of their countries and peoples. They hope to strengthen the spiritual bonds that people have with the land, its people, and its meaning. Native Land Digital maps Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves. They provide educational resources to correct the way that people speak about colonialism and indigeneity, and to encourage territory awareness in everyday speech and action.

The Native Farm Bill Coalition is a nation-wide initiative to give Native Americans a strong, united voice to advance a common agenda on the federal Farm Bill, which addresses everything from nutrition programs to rural development. It is a joint project of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s Seeds of Native Health campaign; the Intertribal Agriculture Council; the National Congress of American Indians; and the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative.

Recommended Reading:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimerrer

Our History Is The Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott