\u2018ammatka Cafe, a restaurant aiming to promote education of Ohlone culture through cuisine, opened its doors in The Lawrence Hall of Science last Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the heart of \u2018ammatka Cafe is the \u2018ottoy initiative, a project between UC Berkeley\u2019s Native American Thriving Initiativesand The Lawrence Hall of Science.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all centered around education, building up representation and fostering greater respect for East Bay Ohlone people,\u201d said Vincent Medina, who co-founded the cafe along with Louis Trevino.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018ottoy\u201d is a Chochenyo word describing a philosophy and intention of repair and mending. The initiative aims to repair the relationship between the campus and the Ohlone community by promoting respect for Ohlone people and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018ammatka Cafe\u2019s menu includes traditional foods and new recipes, showcasing how Ohlone culture continues to develop in the present day. Items such as the cafe\u2019s Ohlone salad are made with ingredients indigenous to the East Bay, such as watercress and California strawberries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ohlone salad is a really special dish that we have,\u201d Medina said. \u201cIt\u2019s something the elders in our community grew up eating and a good representation of the abundance, the colors, the nature of the land that we come from and how rich this place is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other menu highlights include the smoked duck sandwich, featuring a housemade rosehip jam and triple cream cheese from Mount Tamalpais,and brownies Trevino developed. Incorporating traditional ingredients such as chia flour, the brownies were added to the menu after suggestions from Ohlone elders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In sourcing indigenous ingredients, the cafe partners with community farms and student initiatives such as the Indigenous Community Learning Garden in the Oxford Tract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the mak-warep Ohlone Land Conservancy at Russell Research Station, we\u2019re currently in the process of clearing out invasive species,\u201d Medina said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The initiative also manages more than 100 acres of land in collaboration with Cal State East Bay\u2019s Concord Center, according to Medina. In addition, the \u2018ottoy initiative intends to create \u201ca series of native gardens for basketry, medicine and \u2026 food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Medina noted that staff are given comprehensive training on the mission of the cafe and how to promote education of Ohlone culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission is centered on building up awareness and respect for Ohlone culture and cuisine,\u201d Medina said. \u201cAlso teaching them Chochenyo phrases, so they know the language behind the menu items.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasized the importance of teaching staff about the lived experiences of the Ohlone people.<\/p>\n
As a part of community education, Medina and Trevino lead educational sessions at The Lawrence Hall of Science or the \u2018o\u1e6d\u1e6doytak, the patio adjacent tothe Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always thought food \u2026 is such a wonderful way to teach about the abundance of the land, the sophistication of our traditional foods and how that also pairs in with this deep knowledge that\u2019s carried intergenerationally,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018ammatka Cafe, a restaurant aiming to promote education of Ohlone culture through cuisine, opened its doors in The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[87902,87913,87911,87912,87908,87907,87909,87906,87914,143,145,144,87910,65152,87903,87904,87905],"class_list":{"0":"post-186764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-ammatka-cafe","9":"tag-ottoy-initiative","10":"tag-cafe-ohlone","11":"tag-cal-state-east-bays-concord-center","12":"tag-chochenyo","13":"tag-east-bay-ohlone-people","14":"tag-indigenous-community-learning-garden","15":"tag-louis-trevino","16":"tag-mak-warep-ohlone-land-conservancy","17":"tag-oakland","18":"tag-oakland-headlines","19":"tag-oakland-news","20":"tag-oxford-tract","21":"tag-phoebe-a-hearst-museum-of-anthropology","22":"tag-the-lawrence-hall-of-science","23":"tag-uc-berkeleys-native-american-thriving-initiatives","24":"tag-vincent-medina"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}