Rebecca Webster shares Our Precious Corn: Yukwanénste

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Thursday, Jun 15, 2023  6pm - 7pm

Location

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Details

Join us for a book talk and signing with Rebecca Webster in honor of her new book Our Precious Corn: Yukwanénste. Rebecca Webster is also the author of In Defense of Sovereignty: Protecting the Oneida Nation's Inherent Right to Self-Determination and Tribal Administration Handbook: A Guide for Native Nations in the United States.

About Our Precious Corn: Yukwanénste

For the Oneida people, yukwanénste has two meanings: our corn and our precious. Corn has walked alongside the Oneida and other Haudenosaunee people since creation, playing an integral role in their daily and ceremonial lives throughout their often turbulent history. The relationship between corn and the Oneida has changed over time, but the spirit of this important resource has remained by their side, helping them heal along the way. In Our Precious Corn: Yukwanénste, author Rebecca M. Webster (Kanyʌʔtake·lu), an Oneida woman and Indigenous corn grower, weaves together the words of explorers, military officers, and anthropologists, as well as historic and other contemporary Haudenosaunee people, to tell a story about their relationships with corn. Interviews with over fifty Oneida community members describe how the corn has made positive impacts on their lives, as well as hopeful visions for its future. As an added bonus, the book includes an appendix of different cooking and preparation methods for corn, including traditional and modern recipes.

About Rebecca M. Webster

Rebecca M. Webster is an enrolled citizen of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth in their American Indian Studies Department. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in their Tribal Administration and Governance programs. Her research interests focus on tribal administration and food sovereignty. She received her B.A., M.P.A., and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University. In addition to her academic interests, she grows heirloom traditional foods with her family on their 10 acre farmstead Ukwakhwa: Tsinu Niyukwayayʌthoslu (Our foods: Where we plant things) and with Ohe·láku (among the cornstalks), a co-op of Oneida families that grow Iroquois white corn together. Based on their family farming practices, they started a YouTube Channel called Ukwakhwa (Our Foods) where they share what they learned about planting, growing, harvesting, seed keeping, food preparation, food storage, as well as making traditional tools and crafts. Most recently, their family formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Ukwakhwa Inc., to help advance their goals of helping share knowledge with the community.