Exhibit Explores the Revitalization of Local Native Food Traditions, Exhibit Opening: October 20th, 5pm, Collins Library

Showing October 15 – December 16, 2016
Opening Reception: October 20, 2016, 5-6:30pm

The Collins Memorial Library presents an exhibit from the Burke Museum, Salish Bounty: Traditional Native American Food of Puget Sound.  Focusing on the revival of traditional Native foods, Salish Bounty is co-curated by Burke Museum archaeologists and Coast Salish advisors, with additional artifacts and specimens supplied by the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound.

Salish Bounty – comprised of historic photo images, map and informative text reminds us that food isn’t solitary; cooking and eating are things we do with other people and express our cultural history and values. Knowledge of the Coast Salish cuisine has been passed down from the elders and supplemented by archaeological and historical research.  More than 280 kinds of plants and animals have been identified as ingredients in this cuisine. Contemporary Coast Salish cooks incorporate both traditional and newly introduced ingredients, sharing traditions to create healthy alternatives for families and communities still struggling with loss of lands and waters, drastically changed lifestyles, and imposed industrial foods.  Salish Bounty provides a local perspective on a myriad of 21^st century food issues and how, as in many places around the world, the revival of Coast Salish food traditions embodies the reestablishment of more healthful and sustainable practices that honor land and community.

In addition, the exhibit also features a number of baskets from the private collection of Kenneth McGill.  The Coast Salish Indians wove a variety of baskets to serve many purposes including gathering, storing and preparing food.  The baskets and the exhibit complement the existing permanent display of totem poles in the Collins Library as well as the paintings of Abby Williams Hill, who was a friend of the Flathead Indians.

Books to browse for recipes, history and cultural traditions, along with a number of recipes round out this unique exhibit.

Credits:  Salish Bounty:  traditional Native American Foods of Puget Sound has been organized by the Burke Museum, University of Washington, with co-curators Warren King George (Muckleshoot/Upper Skagit Indian tribe) and Elizabeth Swanaset (Nooksack/Cowichan/Laq’amel Tribes.) The Collins Library also thanks the Slater Museum of the University of Puget Sound and Kenneth McGill.