AICHO youth make kimchi

AICHO youth participants learn how food is medicine by making vegan kimchi with food sovereignty activists Luke and Linda Black Elk. Both Giinawiind Giginitaawigi’gomin: Together We Grow and Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin youth participants came together at AICHO’s rooftop garden to learn about the traditional and popular Korean fermented food called kimchi and the nutritious values associated with fermentation. They chopped up cabbage, ginger

The Black Elks were delighted to see what was growing on the rooftop garden. They shared teachings about the different vegetables and herbs. Photos by Ivy Vainio.

​Luke and Linda Black elk are food sovereignty activists and teachers of traditional plant use, gardening, food preservation, and forating. They spend their time collecting and preparing traditional foods and medicines for Indigenous peoples and communities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and beyond. They involved their children in this work so that they may learn about the importance of feeding themselves and their communities with traditional medicines, healing them mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

​After lunch, Linda took the group on a walk around Gimaajii Mino Bimaadizimin and the Dr. Robert Powless Center, showing them over 10 different medicinal plants that were growing in the surrounding area. What people commonly thought of as weeds turned out to be traditional medicines used by the Anishinaabe past and present.

​AICHO says miigwech to Luke and Linda Black Elk for teaching us to look at food as medicine and for the plant walk in downtown Duluth. We learned to value the medicine growing in the concrete jungle of Duluth all around us. 

Miigwech to AICHO Staff Ivy Vainio, Kayla Jackson, Cheryl Stone and Mia Menendez for organizing this cultural experience for our program youth. Miigwech Avery Makes Room For Them for making us such a delicious meal.

This activity was funded in part by Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Human Services Behavioral Health Division, Northland Foundation, Ordean Foundation, United Way of Northeastern Minnesota, and Sheltering Arms Early Education & Family Centers. ​