Featured in the exhibit are representations of foods traditionally important in the lives of Native Californians, including fish, shellfish, seaweed, meat, vegetables, berries, fruits, flowers, nuts, seeds, and salt. This delicious look at Native food is based on the Heyday Books publication “Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast” by Margaret Dubin and Sara-Larus Tolley (2008). The book is a delightful and sometimes startling compendium of Native American cuisine, the most authentic local food around. The exhibit will run through Thursday, May 8.
Sherrie Smith-Ferri, Director of the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, curated this exhibition in consultation with her aunt, Kathleen Rose Smith, a California Indian artist and a member of the Coast Miwok and Dry Creek Pomo tribes. Development of the exhibit was funded by Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, the Mendocino County Office of Education, the Sun House Guild and California Exhibition Resources Alliance (now Exhibit Envoy). Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California with a mission is to build new perspectives among Californians, create innovative exhibitions and solutions, and advance institutions in service to their communities.
Smith-Ferri notes how much fun it was to put the exhibit together, “It brought back lots of good memories of getting together with the family to spend time at the coast harvesting abalone, mussels and seaweed, or going to pick berries. And of course, it brings back recollections of some great meals eaten together. I found I would get really hungry if I worked too long a stretch of time on the exhibit.”
“Our foods were, and still are, as varied as the landscape, as are our methods of preparing them,” states Kathleen Rose Smith. “We ate them raw. We roasted, boiled, baked, leached, steeped, dried, and stored them, and, after contact, we fried, and canned them.” The book and the exhibit contain harvesting instructions and recipes for many delicious foods, including Venison Acorn Casserole, Pine Nut Soup, Rose Hip or Elderberry Syrup, Chia Lemonade, and Salmon Cooked on a Redwood Stick.
Modern California Indians have retained much of the precious plant and animal knowledge of their ancestors, and are in a process of recovering even more. “Despite missionization, Mexican land grants, the Russian quest for sea otters, and American expansionism, we are still here,” states Smith. “We knew (and still know) the land with an intimacy that results from countless interactions.”
The “Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast” exhibition includes historic and contemporary California Indian baskets, artifacts, photographs, as well as informative text blocks explaining and depicting Native techniques of hunting, gathering and preparing food. Recipes of California Indian foods are available for visitors to take home. The exhibit also contains preserved or processed examples of types of California Indian foods including jars of kippered salmon, dried Manzanita berries, dried seaweed and different types of acorns.
The Goudi’ni Gallery is situated on the ground floor of the Humboldt State University Behavioral & Social Sciences building located near Union St. and 17th St. in Arcata. The gallery is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between the hours of 12-5 p.m., Thursday 12-7 p.m., Friday 12-5 p.m., and Saturday 10-2 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, please contact the gallery office at (707) 826-5814.