Mount Allison writer and professor Lauren Beck is nominated for a New Brunswick Book award this year for her work, alongside co-author Margaret Augustine, called Mitji, Let’s Eat.
CHMA caught up with the Visual and Material Culture Studies professor in April, and started off asking about where the idea for Mitji–Let’s Eat! came from.
Beck says a shared interest in food with her co-author Margaret Augustine helped seed the idea for the book, along with the realization that there was Mi’kmaq food knowledge to be passed on to younger generations. “We hope that the elders voices come through with their knowledge,” says Beck, “so we can see it shared with broader audiences, but especially with Mi’kmaq youth.”
Elders in three main communities—Indian Island First Nation, Elsipogtog First Nation and Lennox Island First Nation—contributed stories and knowledge, says Beck.
Beck met Augustine while the latter was doing genealogical research at the Mount Allison University. “The librarian that was working with them called me in, and that sparked the relationship,” says Beck. The pair found a “a joint intellectual interest in Mi’kmaq food ways, and then went to develop the Mitji—Let’s Eat! project.
Beck says she is interested in “decolonization through the senses”, and it doesn’t hurt that she is also an avid eater and enjoys cooking. “When you have projects where you have personal and intellectual interests married together, kind of knitted together, it can be quite satisfying to work on them,” says Beck. Another source of satisfaction for Beck and Augustine has been, “learning from elders and then sharing with them what we learned, and seeing them see their own knowledge affirmed.”
Mitji—Let’s Eat! is not simply a book of recipes, though it is full of them. There’s also essays and short stories that help shed some light on what Beck calls “gastro-colonialism”, and also how Mi’kmaq people have “resisted and thrived” in the face of it.
Beck says the book is aimed at passing on knowledge to Mi’kmaq youth, but also to a broader audience of settler Canadians, who might want to learn more about Indigenous culture. “Food is a great means of doing that,” says Beck, “because we all have to eat. We can share this experience through food and connect through food.” Beck says she and Augustine have tried to make the subject matter “accessible to different audiences who maybe don’t know what Mitji means, or maybe don’t know what Siknuktuk signifies.”
Mitji—Let’s Eat is nominated for a New Brunswick Book Award in non-fiction. The awards will be presented on May 31.
