| Food is Medicine. Food is love. Food is sharing who we are with those we feed to heal and nurture their heart, mind and spirit… Connecting the people to the land.
Participants in the workshop will learn how to make various types of cornbread using modern indigenous cooking methods. Corn is viewed as a gift from the Creator and a symbol of harmony between the people and the land, and the interconnectedness of all living things. We will work with Hopi blue corn meal, Iroquois white corn meal, and Eastern yellow corn meals to prepare cornbread. If there is time, we will make Three Sisters’ Soup, something Sandra Lightheart learned at Ganondagan, (Seneca) during the annual Veteran’s Celebration Dance, Music, and Arts Festival. While we cook together, Sandra will share a few of the various Corn Mother and Corn Maiden stories that she has collected from different traditions throughout her travels on Turtle Island and beyond. Participants are welcome to join in the cooking and we will meet in the kitchen.
Biography: Sandra Polacheck (Lightheart Woman) is a Reading and English Language Arts Specialist and Master Teacher and Creation Story keeper/teller. Born of a father with Hopi-Mongolian, Korean, Slavic, and Viking ancestry, Sandra works with at-risk high school students teaching English literacy, Digital Literacy, Cultural Sensitivity, and Technical Career-based job skills. She has broken barriers in education employing Hopi/Navajo Restorative Justice practices in her classroom to create a peaceful climate and an open dialogue between her many diverse students over the past 28 years. Sandra is a long time member of the International Literacy Association where she served as a member of the ILA’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards Committee – Young Adult Novels (2017-2020). In addition, she has been recognized in “Whos’ Who in America” 2022-2023 and Cambridge’s “Who’s Who in the Globe” 2008-2009 for her work as a distinguished Educator. She is a life-long collector of Creation Stories from around the world. She is also a student who has studied under many tribal Elders over the years including Grandfather Bear Heart (Muskogee-Cree), Grandmother Esther Jackson (Hopi), Grandmother Nanatasis (Abenaki) and has learned Peacekeeper teachings under Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo since 2010. Sandra became an Elder Server in the Arbor in 2009, under the guidance of Fire Keeper Andy Tobey. Born of a mother (Italian, Greek, and West African ancestry) who was an artist, business woman, and pastry chef, Sandra grew up baking and became inspired to learn indigenous cooking when studying corn teachings and visiting the Mitsitam Café in Washington, D.C. at NAMI, while writing high school English Language Arts curriculum for the United States National Digital Library. |
