Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo Nation of Oklahoma) the owner and Executive Chef of Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland, Calif, who was a James Beard Award finalist for “emerging chef with best new restaurant of the Bay Area of 2022” and has appeared on the Food network program, Chopped, seeks to create food that honors the origins of each ingredient and cultivates connections to Indigenous farmers and land stewards. Her mission is to resurrect and popularize Ancestral food ways in a spirit of honor, respect, gratitude, reciprocity and collaboration, so that food can be a vehicle to help heal communities and society as a whole. (wahpepahskitchen.com)