New Book Published by L. Sasha Gora
20.03.2025
ProEnviron alumna and former RCC editorial director Dr. L. Sasha Gora has published her first monograph, Culinary Claims: Indigenous Restaurant Politics in Canada, in March 2025 as part of the Culinaria series at the University of Toronto Press. It exlores the complex relationships between wild plants and introduced animals, between Indigenous foodways and Canadian regulations. The book is based on doctoral research Sasha conducted at the RCC.
Culinary Claims blends food studies with environmental history examining how cusines reflect social and political issues related to cultural representation, restaurants, and food sovereignty. By drawing on a diverse range of sources—from recipes and menus to artworks and television shows—it chronicles the rise of Indigenous restaurants and their influence on Canadian food culture. It tells a new story of settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance, emphasizing the critical role that restaurants play in Canada’s cultural landscape and investigates how food shapes our understanding of place and the politics that underpin this relationship. Ultimately, the book asks what insights historians can gain from restaurants as reflections of Indigenous and settle negotiations over cultural claims to land. (Text adapted from L. Sasha Gora’s website)
The RCC would like to warmly congratulate Sasha on her new publication!