First Foods: Gathering & Preserving our Coastal Foods with Josephine A. Smith
Channel: First Foods Program
Date: 2020-07-28

First Foods: Gathering & Preserving our Coastal Foods with Josephine Smith from Shinnecock Nation!

Here's her bio:Josephine A. Smith is an enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Indian Nation of eastern Long Island, New York. She resides on the Shinnecock Territory with her family. Josephine began foraging and cooking at a young age, watching her mother, grandmother and aunts and uncles. As she became an adult, she continued her interest in learning about the traditional foods and medicines of her people and passes this knowledge on to her children and grandchildren. For over 25 years she developed recipes and sold her foods as a vendor at powwows. She has given presentations on traditional foods and has catered special event receptions for museums and cultural organizations. Josephine serves as the Director of Cultural Resources Department for the Shinnecock Nation, and owns her own business as a jewelry, craft and regalia designer. Though physically no longer travel to powwows as a food vendor, she still enjoys gathering from the land and sea and cooking for family and friends.


Thank you to our partner Ibex Puppetry for the ongoing support of First Foods!


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First Foods is an educational series that features Indigenous culture bearers who hold the oldest knowledge on the continent. 

Our goals: 

1. Preserve and share Indigenous knowledge making what is often unavailable to urban Native people available. Our target market is other Indigenous people and our program is spearheaded by Indigenous womxn. 

2.Provide much needed teaching opportunities to a population of people who are valuable to preserving biodiversity, promoting alternative food preparation, and highlighting ways to build health outside industrial food systems.