Recipes for Revolution
The land which feeds us, heals us. The land which heals us, feeds us. We call on all who have the necessary ingredients for our collective recipe for revolution to join us with their contributions to a collection of indigenous recipes. We celebrate this collection of indigenous knowledge about land and food by coming together. The recipes for revolution are as diverse as our territories so we invite you to return to the land, share your recipes and join the feast!
We are the generation that belongs to the land.
We are the land and the land is us
And as we heal the land, the land heals us
We call on the energy of the youth
We call on the wisdom of the elders
To come together to heal the land
For as we heal the land, the land heals us
We call to the generations yet unborn
To bear witness to our healing
To bear witness to our promise
To heal the land, as the land heals us
To feed the land, as the land feeds us
To return to the land, as the land returns to us
To go back to the land, as the land goes back to us
To thrive on the land,
as the land provides the feast
We are the generation that belongs to the land.
We are the land and the land is us
And as we heal the land, the land heals us
feast to thrive
Our narrative hack is about returning back to the land as the land returns back to us. Recipes for Revolution is a collection of indigenous recipes from Territories of Transition all over the globe. These are restorative recipes of revolution and ancestral knowledge about the lands of the Kalihiwai on the island of Kaua’i. Halele’a and Ko’olau districts in Hawaii, to Guam, of Pomo territory, one hour north of the Bay area in Northern California, of Tiuvta also called Watsonville California, of Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico, of South Africa and Canada.
We live in times of extractivism and exploitation of the earth, in a world of consumption, where the center is the money. We want to recognize the value of life on earth, our value, we are the earth, we are the earth revolting, healing and regenerating itself. We recognize that there is no single recipe for radical change and that the recipes are as diverse as our territories are different. With this collection of recipes for revolution, we offer simply a sacred call to action. For us to think about our relationship to land in times of the polycrisis and to go about the work that will preserve the ancestral narratives and heritage that comes with our ability to nourish ourselves with food/cooking. We want to share with you the living recipes that we inherited from our grandmothers and grandfathers. And we invite you to share yours with the collective intention to create an indigenous knowledge commons about food and liberation.
Join us and share your indigenous recipes and stories, pictures and videos of the diverse ways the land you live upon nourishes you through the food you eat #RecipesForRevolution
Recipes for Revolution
- Månha Titiyas By: Maria Hernandez (Guåhan)
- Yellow Mole with Mushrooms By: Wendy Juárez (Zapotec Territory)
- Afro/Pomo kale soup and Acorn Cornbread By: Ras Kdee (Pomo Territory)
- Quelites & Quesillo By: Hugo Nava (México – USA)
- Chile de Ciruela By: Marlene Brito Millán (Nahua / Ojibwe / Odawa / Potawatomi Territory)
- Kō‘elepālau (sweet potato pudding) By: Mehana Vaughan (Kaua’i Territory)
- Chakalaka & Pap By: Ashanti Kunene (Zulu Territory)
- Love for the Land Stew By: Recipes for Revolution (Planet Earth)
Månha Titiyas
By: Maria Hernandez
Territory: Guam
In Guåhan, this coconut crepe is the perfect dish to bring to a gathering or as a gift when you’re visiting a friend or elder. It’s also an easy enough recipe to teach a neni (child) who wants to try their hand in the kitchen.
Yellow Mole with Mushrooms
By: Wendy Juárez
Territory: San Antonio Cuajimoloyas, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico
The yellow potato is a recipe from the northern highlands of Oaxaca, a place of cold mountains and forests of pines, oaks and ocotales. The invitation of this recipe is to sow our land, to recover the food of our surroundings and our territory.
Afro/Pomo kale soup and Acorn Cornbread
By: Ras Kdee
Territory: Pomo Territory, California
I belong to the coastal Pomo people of Northern California. I belong to the red earth, from the mountains to the seas of west and east Africa. The world is my home. This is the vegan sausage of Afro & Pomo comming together.
Quelites & Quesillo
By: Hugo Nava
Territory: Tiuvta, Watsonville California
On this continent, the first species to disappear is the quelite, since it is considered a weed by the international market. Fortunately, in some regions of Mexico the variety of quelites is still quite wide, as campesino families migrants, we carry our seeds, we reproduce them in a land that we did not know but is now part of our territory and we continue preparing our ancestral recipes.
Chile de Ciruela
By: Marlene Brito Millán
Territory: El Naranjo, Guerrero (Nahua) so called ‘Mexico’ / Chicago, IL (Ojibwe/Odawa/Potawatomi), so called ‘USA’
Historically, Chile de ciruela is a dish that helped nourish people when stored food supplies (maiz, beans, and squash) were starting to dwindle at the end of the dry season (and months before the rains for the new growing season came). Actually eating this dish is also an experience as most savor the juices of the fruit, but being careful to spit out the hard seeds.
Kō‘elepālau (sweet potato pudding)
By: Mehana Vaughan
Territory: Kalihiwai on the island of Kaua’i. Halele’a and Ko’olau districts
Coconuts are plentiful in Hawaiʻi, brought to the islands by my ancestors, in their long voyages by canoe. Used to symbolize Hawaiʻi, the swaying palms conjure idyllic, paradise and are often gestured in hula. I chose a recipe my tutuʻs sister loved to make and I love to eat.
Chakalaka & Pap
By: Ashanti Kunene
Territory: South Africa
Chakalaka is a township dish that we always make as a family whenever there is a ceremony, a braai or when I’m feeling like something that tastes like home. As a south african, chakalaka and pap is a combo that reflects the colonial influences in my country – the Indian spices, the English baked beans.
Love for the Land Stew
By: Recipes for Revolution
Territory: Planet Earth
We want to share with you the recipe that we have written collectively, from territories in Hawai’i; Turtle Island; Sierra Zapoteca of Oaxaca, Mexico; Vancouver, Guahan, and South Africa. We want to share with you the living recipes that we inherited from our grandmothers and grandfathers. We want you to share with us – what is your recipe?
Closing Prayer
Land returning to people returning to land
Yakeama (we belong to the land)
ʻĀina (land, that which feeds)
Izwe Lethu (the land is ours, we are the land)
Tuma’lo i tano’
The origin place
male and female mountain
from where the waters flow
I am the land and the land is me
Bidaha, Abida
The river that speaks
mixing of fresh and salt
the mouth of the river
carries the songs
All the water there is
is all there has been
So this water has touched
Everything
Holds knowledge of
Everything
I belong to the river, the river flows through me
The deepest ocean trench in the world
The tallest peak from the bottom of the ocean
though just a hill
Shade trees
Touch of the wind
Hills of refuge
Green grass in drought
Forest food in famine
Caves during typhoons
I heal the land and the land heals me.
My dad was with us
we were gathering dry beans
To have all the beans
come out of the pod
You have to pick up the bunch
Then you call out to the wind
Lencho, lencho
Help me move the pods
so the beans can come out.
We feed the land, as the land feeds us.
Feast to thrive
Herbs from all my children
Rekindling connection
with more than human kin
Big magic
trumps small logic
Elders wisdom
Inspired
You will always win
Not letting what is realistic
stop you from what you need to do
We are the generation that belongs to the land.
We call on the wisdom of the elders
We call on the energy of the youth
We call on the generations yet unborn
To heal the land, as the land heals us
To feed the land as the land feeds us
To return to the land as the land returns to us
E hoʻi i ka ʻāina, ʻāina hoʻi
Returning to the land, land returning
Izwe lethu
Our land
Back to the Land was born after 5 months of the ‘Territories of Transition’ narrative lab, where 28 land defenders from Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Alaska, Canada, USA, México, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador gathered to hack the hegemonic narrative around land ownership. We used the Culture Hack method to co-create this narrative and campaign. #BackToTheLand is under Creative Commons Non-Comercial Share Alike 4.0.