Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty/
Camino alimentaria: Curación a través de la soberanía alimentaria

Please click here to view the Northern Straits Language Translation of this statement by Qol7ánten Sam Barr

Moon of the Windy Time (January 25) - Moon of the Digging Time (May 11, 2025)/ Luna del Tiempo Ventoso (25 de enero de 2025) hasta la Luna del Tiempo Cavador (11 de mayo de 2025)

Curators/Curadores: Morgan Brown (Tsimshian) and Candice Wilson Quatz'tenaut (Lummi Nation)

The Museum of Northwest Art is honored to present the exhibition Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty. Featured in the Outside In Gallery, Food Moves is a project co-curated by Morgan Brown (Tsimshian) and Candice Wilson Quatz'tenaut (Lummi Nation). The exhibition will run from Moon of the windy time (January 25, 2025) through Moon of the digging time (May 11, 2025). Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty will feature approximately 25 artists of Coast Salish, Alaskan Native, and/or First Nations.

"Since time of creation, Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest have chosen a way of life grounded in moving with the rhythms and migrations of the land and waterways. Our understanding of time and place is embedded in the kinship ecosystems that bind us together with moon and tide, salmon and seaweed, wind and stars, berries and elk. Traditional Ecological Knowledge continues to pump through our veins and flow in our rivers. This is our true nature.

Within the works of art featured in Food Moves lies a common thread revealing pathways of healing that emerge when we are in relationship with the beings who feed us. Food Moves generates visibility, advocacy and protection for our ancestral seeds, foods, plants, medicines, and our clean waters that give us all life. Just as grandmother cedar tree raises her hands to us, we raise our hands to our relatives that nourish us generation after generation and connect us with our ancestors. 

At the heart of Food Moves is a resurgence in the teachings of love, generosity, reciprocity, and interdependence that are forever held in the land and waters. This way of life is the backbone of sovereignty. By healing and restoring the land and waters, we heal and restore ourselves.

Woven within the duration of the art exhibition are multimedia offerings such as podcasts, workshops, poetry readings, storytelling, and indigenous language sharing that welcome human connection, engagement, and respectful ways of knowledge sharing.

Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty is a fertile ground for honoring the land that continues to hold each and every one of us. This is an invitation to remember our place within a kin-centric world view that welcomes each of us to belong." ~ Morgan Brown and Candice Wilson 

Now accepting applications! Please send submissions and inquiries to foodmoves2025@gmail.com by November 1st. Please include for each submission:

1. Artist name

2. Artist tribal affiliation

3. Art title

4. Date created

5. Value of art

6. Medium

7. 50 word bio of artist

8. Artist statement about Healing Through Food Sovereignty (250 words)

9. Artist statement about the art piece (250 words)

10. Artist contact information (phone & email)

11. Separate digital image of each object (art) being submitted

12. Additional information, including website/profile/social media

El Museo de Arte del Noroeste tiene el honor de presentar la exposición Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty. Presentada en la galería Outside In, Food Moves es un proyecto comisariado conjuntamente por Morgan Brown (Tsimshian) y Candice Wilson Quatz'tenaut (Nación Lummi). La exposición estará abierta desde la Luna del Tiempo Ventoso (25 de enero de 2025) hasta la Luna del Tiempo Cavador (11 de mayo de 2025). Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty contará con la participación de aproximadamente 25 artistas del pueblo Costa Salish, Nativos de Alaska y Primeras Naciones.

“Desde el tiempo de la creación, los pueblos indígenas del noroeste del Pacífico han elegido un modo de vida basado en el movimiento con los ritmos y migraciones de la tierra y los cursos de agua. Nuestra comprensión del tiempo y el lugar está arraigado en los ecosistemas familiares que nos unen con la luna y la marea, el salmón y las algas, el viento y las estrellas, las bayas y los alces. El Conocimiento Ecológico Tradicional aún fluye por nuestras venas y por nuestros ríos. Esta es nuestra verdadera naturaleza.

Dentro de las obras de arte presentadas en Food Moves existe un tema recurrente que revela las vías de curación que surgen cuando mantenemos una relación con los seres que nos alimentan. Food Moves genera visibilidad, defiende y protege nuestras aguas puras, medicinas, plantas, alimentos y semillas ancestrales que nos dan la vida a todos. Nosotros, al igual que la Abuela Cedro eleva sus manos, levantamos nuestras manos a nuestros familiares que nos alimentan y nos conectan con nuestros antepasados. 

En el corazón de Food Moves está el resurgimiento de las enseñanzas del amor, la generosidad, la reciprocidad y la interdependencia que se mantienen ineludibles en la tierra y las aguas. Esta forma de vida es el eje central de la soberanía. Nos recuperamos y sanamos a nosotros mismos al sanar y restaurar la tierra y las aguas.

Durante la exposición de arte, se llevará a cabo actividades multimedia como pódcasts, talleres, recitales de poesía, narración e intercambio de idiomas indígenas que fomentan la conexión humana, el compromiso y el intercambio respetuoso de conocimientos.

Food Moves: Healing through Food Sovereignty es un terreno fértil para honrar la tierra que sigue albergando a todos y cada uno de nosotros. Es una invitación a recordar de nuestro lugar dentro de una visión del mundo centrada en la parentela que nos da la bienvenida a cada uno de nosotros para pertenecer a ella.” ~ Morgan Brown y Candice Wilson

About the Curators:

Candice Wilson Quatz'tenaut is a member of the Lummi Nation and is currently the Tribal Policy Director for Washington State Department of Health, where she works collaboratively on processes and policies with tribes and public health partners. Candice is the former Executive Director of the Lhaq’temish Foundation and former Tribal & Community Liaison to the North Sound Accountable Community of Health. She has served on the Ferndale School District Board of Directors for four years, and Lummi Indian Business Council for nine years as an elected official for Lummi Nation--serving three of those years as the Vice Chairwoman. She is well versed in tribal relations and is an accomplished community builder in promoting cultural interfaces by commemorating Indigenous heritage and values. Honorary recognition of the National Indian Health Board - Community Service Organization Award 2021 and the Whatcom Family & Community Network - Community Builder Award 2021. 

Morgan Brown is a Tsimshian mother, auntie, sister, and daughter. She currently works for the Swinomish Tribe as the Environmental education coordinator and Indigenous Science Educator in the La Conner High School. Morgan considers her students to be some of her biggest teachers. Her inspiration and knowledge fall in the realms of traditional plant medicine, first foods, seed keeping, seed reMatriation, weaving, Sm’algyax language revitalization, poetry, birth keeping, motherhood, advocacy for and protection of Indigenous youth, and healing generational trauma through partnering with plants, animals and ancestors. Morgan’s current passions are reviving ancestral trade routes and trade-based gatherings, Gwishnagmgyemk weaving and traditional methods of dyeing, as well as cultivating an educational ethnobotanical garden with Indigenous youth that centers the teachings of kinship ecosystems, seed and plant stewardship, and Indigenous language.

Resource Library:

Finding Our Way Rowan White Podcast

PLANTS podcast with Morgan Brown

Sierra Seeds

13 Moons Curriculum