Rematriating Systems Keynote Panel at 2026 AK Food Festival & Conference

Thank you all for a beautiful weekend together at the 2026 Alaska Food Festival & Conference in Fairbanks! So grateful for this year's partnership between the Alaska Food Policy Council, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), and Native Movement. We're honored that many communities and individuals from across Alaska and the world joined together to "dig in" on some much needed discussions.

About the keynote panel from Day 1 entitled Rematriating Systems:

Rematriation is the return of land, knowledge, and cultural practice to Indigenous peoples, restoring sovereignty and relationships where colonization disrupted them. Unlike repatriation, which carries a root tied to father and ownership, rematriation centers mother, kinship, and reciprocity: land as relative, not resource.

This keynote panel brings together Indigenous women working at the intersection of food, land, economics, and culture to explore what it means to bring decision-making, knowledge, and stewardship back to the people and practices that extraction and colonization displaced.

Join Enei Begaye, Executive Director of Native Movement; Alana Peterson, Executive Director of Spruce Root; Eva Burk, Executive Director of Tlaa Deneldel Community Group; Michelle Crisostomo, Co-Executive Director of Guåhan Sustainable Culture; and Kayleen Ward-Peter, Council Member, Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government; Chair, T’ee DriinJik Tribal Conservation District, for a keynote panel on rebuilding the systems that shape their communities, from Alaska to Guam.

Together, these leaders are reclaiming land, restoring food sovereignty, building capital and economic power within communities, and healing generational trauma through culture, community, and economic development. Their work spans advocacy and agriculture, lending and education, landback and and network building. Aligned with this year's theme, Cultivating Community, Harvesting Hope, panelists will share the progress, challenges, and hope growing from this work across Alaska and beyond.

Speakers:

Enei Begaye, Native Movement, Executive Director

Eva Dawn Burk, Tlaa Deneldel Community Group, Co-Founder/Executive Director

Michelle Crisostomo, Guåhan Sustainable Culture, Co-Executive Director

Alana Peterson, Spruce Root, Executive Director

Kayleen Ward-Peter, Teedriinjik