Training, Funding

A Native worldview begins with the belief that seeds are wise relatives who need their Native families to care for them. Rather than a mass-produced, modified food stuff, seeds hold the stories, knowledge and spiritual information traditional Native farmers have used and protected for generations. As time has gone on and the pressures of industrialization and urban living have created different ways of producing and consuming foods, many Native people have lost their connection to their traditional relationship with seeds. As is well known, health outcomes have become dismal, and our Native people’s eating patterns have become health-prohibitive. NFRA prioritizes growing Native varieties during the training program because, often, the seeds and their people have not seen each other in a long time. We know that reunifying seeds with their people – rematriation –  is healing for both the seeds and their people. These seeds and their people have evolved together for centuries and their separation from one another is almost always related to land loss/theft, forced assimilation, warfare, disease and other elements of colonization. Reuniting seeds with their people fosters spiritual and physical healing and provides the growers with a way to feed themselves healthy, culturally significant foods. Through our training program, growers are able to save, select, and share seeds and food within their communities, which renews and strengthens tribal protocols and practices that are centered and fueled by the seeds.