My name is Charity Qalutaq Blanchett, Founder + CEO Dipping Spoon Foundation

I’m an Indigenous Yup’ik and Black woman born on Dena’ina Land, a descendant of the Yup’ik tundra, the land of the caribou from a bloodline of royalty, the Real People. I was given the name Qalutaq as an infant from my Indigenous Yup’ik mother.

I am Qalutaq. My Indigenous Yup’ik name means Dipping Spoon.

The meaning of the Dipping Spoon is, “From one dip you serve other people, dip into water and the water is given to everybody, it grows and keeps going.”

When I was a little girl my Yup’ik mother would host gatherings at our home. Every Yup’ik or Inupiaq woman we knew from our small town would dine at our kitchen table and feast on traditional foods. My mother and her friends, my adopted aunties would commune together, chat, laugh, eat, in the late evening take a hot backyard maqiiq, my father built it for my mother so she could continue our ancestral traditions. Even though my mother no longer lives in her small rural Alaska Native village of Tuntutuliak, she found a sense of community and sisterhood in our little town, Wasilla.

That’s what I love about New Orleans, Louisiana. My new hometown. My new roots. My mothers parties are now my ladies night. I adore the unity, diversity, sisterhood and community of this magical city. She is rich, vibrant and ripe with culture at her helm, which is her heartbeat. They are the people, music, Second Lines, giant oak lined streets, lush parks accompanied with hot sticky sweet temperatures, storied Parades and of course, New Orleans dynamic food cuisine.

I’ve lived a blessed life with access to many experiences, things, immersed myself in culture, traveled and have always been keen on what the world would look like without the bold creativity, flavors and design of Indigenous peoples and artisans. Fairytales aren’t real, a perfect world doesn’t exist but you can’t get rid of the true romance Indigenous peoples have with our land, ocean, animals and skies. The luxury is in our stories, none like the other, the design in who we are to survive the elements. The land creates us. We are rare. We are mysteriously special, daringly observant, creators of the day and night, our ancestors' spirits live, create and design within us. My life is a design of my creation with the strength of my ancestors.

A woman I admire greatly is Elizabeth Peratrovich. She was an Alaskan Native Civil Rights Hero who championed the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States. She was a civil servant to her people. She eloquently reminded the good ole’ boys club: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind the gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.”

Ms. Peratrovich’s brave actions fought for equality, representation and justice.

I believe food should champion culture and rebel against boundaries. Dipping Spoon’s programming allows young aspiring Indigenous and Black Youth to not only be a champion of themselves, but their culture. Cultural representation in the kitchen, education and business is beyond important in today’s world. Cultural Representation in the all the avenues food touches is paramount.

Our identity is what makes us solidly unique. Culture in the kitchen is diversity in the kitchen. Investing in our community is investing in our youth. Future legacies await.

Food, unites us all, a language we speak. Food is the one rare thing which brings us together.

Dip In.

Quyana,

Charity Qalutaq Blanchett