The Native American Student Association will host the 15th annual First Nations Food Taster on Friday, Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. in the Jacobetti Complex.

This event will serve as the precursor to NASA’s 23rd traditional “Learning to Walk Together” Pow Wow and will include a raffle-prize giveaway as well as a Native American musical experience.

The purpose of the food taster is to publicize and fundraise for the upcoming Pow-Wow and to promote education of the Anishinaabe culture. NASA also seeks to promote the decolonizing diet project (DDP) which is an exploratory study that focuses on the relationship between people and indigenous foods that natives used to eat prior to colonization.

Recipes from the DDP are primarily made up of three sister food groups: corn, beans and squash. There will be a variety of recipes to choose from at the food taster including some different stews, venison meat and cranberries.

Some specific dishes to look out for are sunbutter cookies, bison venison meatloaf and pumpkin cornbread. The recipes for the food taster are decided by the collaborative effort from Martin Reinhardt, assistant professor of Native American Studies, and the students of NASA in the meetings that happen weeks before the event.

Local community members, members of the native community, as well as some students and faculty are those who usually attend the event. Some contributors to the food taster are the Marquette Food Co-Op, Econofoods and Valle’s Village Market, which make donations to the university.

A large portion of volunteers for this event come from NMU, but there will also be a large community presence as well.

Rachel McCaffrey, student worker at NASA, said that the food taster is a huge community event and that NASA takes pride in involvement from the community.

“We’re just happy that the people of the Marquette community have such a good relationship with Northern and that we can do this event with our donations. It’s really, really special,” she said.