Kemēcemenaw: Menominee Food Sovereignty

Extended Family

Extended family is a valued cultural asset for Menominee people. Extended family is not a term locally used but for the purposes of this guide it refers to family members outside of the immediate family (mom, dad, brothers, sisters, grandparents). For Menominee, family includes everyone within a kinship system (immediate family and aunts, uncles, all cousins, nieces, nephews). For Menominee, the “extended” family is family. It is important to understand this value in order to understand intergenerational learning. Intergenerational learning is an important component of food sovereignty events and programs. While it is understood that grants have specific target audiences, events and programs encourage whole families to participate and learn together. This inclusive environment promotes both family time and intergenerational learning. It is in these spaces where the greatest teachings take place, as stories about grandma’s garden are shared, memories of berry picking and picnics with the family are exchanged, and stories about harvesting wild leeks and making soup the same day are shared. In these spaces, Menominee youth are respectfully sharing knowledge by helping with arts revitalization and even language learning. Following are a few examples of how extended family enriched the outreach and education beyond what our programs could offer.  Garden education workshops. Garden workshops are now promoted as family time. Standard garden education is offered with time built in for sharing and storytelling. Participants included grandparents, parents, youth, young adults, and babies.  Cultural arts workshops. While some art workshops did have age limits for participants because of the tools used, the workshops did not discourage participants from having family members present. Art revitalization workshops became a place where high school youth, adults, and elders worked and learned together. This also became a place where mothers and daughters would register for workshops together to spend time together and learn about traditional arts together.  Outdoor learning workshops. Outdoor learning workshops like wild rice processing, maple syrup processing, and plant identification were promoted as community events without any age limits. Like the cultural arts workshops, mothers and daughters would register and attend together to build relationships and learn together. This connects to how these activities were historically performed.

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