What does it mean to 're-Indigenize' contemporary diets?

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r. Charlotte Coté is the author of "A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast." She sat down with Libby Denkmann to discuss "decolonizing" native diets.

For native communities, traditional foods serve many purposes: physical medicine, cultural connection, social linkage and spiritual affirmation.

Processed foods rich in sugar, sodium and unhealthy fats have had well-documented negative effects on people's health all over the world.

But Dr. Charlotte Coté says they have also damaged the spiritual and social well being of indigenous communities.

Dr. Coté is the author of "A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other: Stories of Indigenous Food Sovereignty from the Northwest Coast." She’s also an associate professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, and a co-founder and chair of the Living Breath Indigenous Foods Symposium at the University of Washington, which is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this May.

Speaking to Soundside's Libby Denkmann, Dr. Coté tells the story of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices, starting with a memory of picking wild trailing blackberries with her aunt, and about how native foods and traditions can interact with brain chemistry.