Category Archives: Gullah/Geechee Foodways
Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week 2022
From North Carolina’s Town of Leland down to Jacksonville, Florida, the coastal counties and numerous townships in the Gullah/Geechee Nation have proclaimed July 30-August 6, 2022 as “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week.” This marks the 10th anniversary of the Gullah/Geechee Nation wide celebration of authentic Gullah/Geechee culture. The week launches on historic St. Helena Island, SC at the St. Helena Park at Noon on Saturday, July 30th with “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day
Gullah/Geechees Defeat Bay Point Destructioneer!
“The decision to uphold the Beaufort Board of Zoning Appeals’ original decision to deny the building of an exclusive luxury resort on Bay Point is an outstanding way to conclude not only Oceans Month, but to also conclude a month that has been filled with celebrations of freedom for us in the Gullah/Geechee Nation,” said Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation. “We have continued to fight for our sacred ancestral lands and the waters that surround us because these are the places that have allowed our families to be self-sufficient for generations and we want these places to remain safe and healthy for future generations to do the same.”
Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival™ 2022
Jayn we fa de 2022 Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival een Bluffton, SC een de Gullah/Geechee Nation August 6th! http://www.GullahGeechee.info
Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day 2022
Cum jayn we fa Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day 2022 pun historic St. Helena Island, SC een de Gullah/Geechee Nation! Bring your entire family to an authentic Gullah/Geechee afternoon featuring numerous Gullah/Geechee presentations, crafts, food, and businesses.
Coastal Cultures Conference 2022: Sea Island Coastal & Cultural Heritage Sustainability
The Gullah/Geechee have lived on the Sea Islands since the 1500s and have been able to sustain their cultural heritage and their coastal homeland through their own traditional indigenous knowledge practices. They are melding these practices with modern technology as part of their climate action and cultural continuation strategy. Cum fa yeddi bout disya wid we!
Fa Mama Dem een de Gullah/Geechee Nation: A Legacy of Gullah/Geechee Female Freedom Fighters
Every Women’s Herstory Month / Black Women’s Herstory Month, I reflect on the blessed harvest of knowledge that GOD has allowed me to cultivate by not simply reading about or watching videos of these powerfilled Gullah/Geechee female freedom fighters. I give thanks for the abundant harvest that has been part of my life because they each saw fit to plant seeds of knowledge into my mind and soul. They showed me tools to use at the right time to cut out things that would not be beneficial nor uplifting to me or to the movement for the rights of women, Black people and especially those that are Gullah/Geechee. They knew how and when to cut just as my mother does and all her mothers before her did. I am thankful that they placed the knife in my hands in the field.
Build Back Better BIPOC Coastal Cultural Heritage Communities including the Gullah/Geechee Nation
I never thought that my house on St. Helena Island in South Carolina would host the United States Congress or the United Nations. However, due to the on-going global pandemic, I have been able sit in prestigious political places via my computer screen without traveling and contributing further carbon emissions. As I tune in, I am concerned about the omissions- the omissions of the cost of climate change impacts on cultural heritage communities like the Gullah/Geechee Nation on the southeastern coast.
Queen Quet of de Gullah/Geechee Nation and Pioneers of Preservation
The first event of the Pioneers in Preservation series will kick off at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, located at 41 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Gullah/Geechee Nation luminary Queen Quet will deliver a thought-provoking, “edu-taining,” “histo-musical” performance highlighting Gullah/Geechee roots while focusing on the strength of tradition and the power of story through music. Those arriving ahead of the presentation will be able to see the “Human Cargo” exhibition for FREE.
Where You Gonna Run To? Cultural Heritage Continuation and the Intersectionality of Calamity
…those that truly see the world devastation attached to the spiritual degradation that has led people to being so self absorbed that they are more interested in their distractions than they are in focusing on ways to heal the planet, find ourselves almost unable to rise from our knees to work since we are consistently crying out to GOD to hold back the storms and heal the land. If the root cause of climate change is truly anthropocene and climate inaction has produced and will continue to produce more human health issues from heat induced sicknesses to pandemics and will continue to threaten our food security by bringing about ocean acidification, drought, and wildfires amongst a sundry lists of other issues, “Oh sinner man, where you gonna run to?”
Gullah/Geechee Agro-Culture Fishing & Farming Field Day
who were enslaved on plantations along the southeast coast, Gullah/Geechee represents the only group of African Americans who maintained a significant amount of Africanisms including foodways, land use practices, subsistence fishing, and the spoken Gullah language (Goodwine, 1998; Politzer, 1999). For centuries, Gullah/Geechee communities sustained a way of life predicated on the wealth of close-knit family compounds, and carefully nurtured the resources of the land and water (Dean, 2013). In recent decades, this way of life has been disrupted due to inequitable public policy. Beyond the negative impact on the immediate community, this disruption also has negative impacts on the larger farming ecosystem. Research shows that culture and agriculture ecosystems are inextricably linked – sustain culture, sustain agriculture (Dean, 2013).” Like the cast net, we want to draw in all that will feed the Gullah/Geechee Famlee. We gwine feed de mind, body, and soul.