Our exploration of Indigenous food cultures started with the acorn, a source of sustenance for a majority of the native peoples who have lived off the land we now call California for thousands of years. Before our first Zoom class, the fourth and fifth graders watched two short films with their homeroom teacher: How This Native American Elder Reclaimed Sacred Land in the Bay Area and Tending the Wild: Decolonizing the Diet. The first Edible Social Studies kits this week contained a handful of (mostly Live Oak) acorns gathered in the East Bay and the Peninsula, a reusable tea bag, loose leaf yerba buena tea, and an acorn brownie.
In class, we used all of our senses to make a cup of tea together from the wild mint that grew so abundantly around what is now San Francisco that the Spanish colonizers named the land Yerba Buena (“good herb”) after it. We then enjoyed the refreshing drink with the acorn brownie while discussing both the opportunities and challenges we have when studying Indigenous food cultures. Many Indigenous food staples are not commercially available and centuries of intentional cultural erasure has resulted in few Indigenous voices being celebrated and amplified even at a time when so much attention is being paid to chefs, restaurants, and cookbooks.
One student remarked on a phrase used by Ann-Marie Sayers, the Ohlone woman featured in the film about Indian Canyon, about the impact of our actions on our descendants seven generations from now. We tied this idea to our other fourth/fifth grade Edible Social Studies unit on the intersection of climate change and the food system, which we taught last year and will bring back next year. Especially during a year of unprecedented wildfires, I could really feel everyone drawing a connection from the past to our present, lived experiences.
The acorn was a staple of many Indigenous diets. In breakout rooms, students shared a few of their family’s food staples with each other. Rice and beans, cheese, salad, fruit, broccoli, and meat were a just a few of the foods students designated as important to them and their loved ones.
