Spring Table with Sewa Yuli and David Fred Pecusa

On Saturday, June 7, Forge Project & I-Collective will host a shared meal and conversation revolving around Indigenous foods and the opportunities for connection through community-stewarded knowledge that they offer. Focused on the impact of Indigenous-led food sovereignty work in Southwestern territories, Sewa Yuli, I-Collective member, and her collaborator David Fred Pecusa will discuss their approach to lineages of food without borders and share a collaborative meal (served at 5:00pm) with participants at our Outdoor Kitchen.

The I-Collective stands for four principles: Indigenous, Inspired, Innovative, and Independent. An autonomous group of Indigenous chefs, activists, herbalists, seed, and knowledge keepers, the I-Collective strives to open a dialogue and create a new narrative that highlights not only historical Indigenous contributions, but also promotes our community's resilience and innovations in gastronomy, agriculture, the arts, and society at large.

Sewa Yuli (Yoeme/Purepecha), founder of Mi Xantico, is a traditional holistic practitioner, community-based cook, full spectrum birth keeper and filmmaker rooted in anti-oppressive values. Their focus is centered on traditional indigenous practices, reproductive autonomy, preservation of ancestral foodways, and food justice advocacy.

Through Mi Xantico, they emphasize on making culturally relevant food and healing modalities accessible, centering communities of color using food education and connection to land-based ways to empower and self-determination.

David Fred Pecusa is of the Hopi and Akimel O'Odham tribes of Arizona. 

“I am of the coyote clan and I was raised in the Hopi village of Bacavi/Paaqavi, meaning Reed Springs. I grew up learning from my father and grandfather tending cattle and Hopi traditional farming methods. Hopi people over the centuries have developed a method of farming called dryland farming. Relying on winter snowfall and summer rains to provide moisture for growing crops. Our family grows varieties of Hopi corn, beans, melons and pumpkins.

My chosen career has been cooking. I have cooked in a range of places, from hospitals, catering events, to elementary schools on the Hopi reservation. I am currently cooking at a community college cafeteria in southern Arizona. Learning from the elder women on Hopi is where most of my knowledge of Hopi traditional foods comes from. I have also learned about the food ways of the Akimel O'Odham, my mother's people, in southern Arizona. I have always felt retaining understanding and practicing traditional indigenous foodways, is a direct connection to land and place where our lives and physical bodies are directly connected and part of the land by its foods that it provides.

I also weave Hopi traditional textiles and weave Akimel O'Odham baskets.”