The winners were announced on Saturday, May 26th at the “Oscars of the cookbook world” in Yantai, China. In this unique and now acclaimed food book, a team of 50 young indigenous authors presented 14 different Arctic indigenous peoples' food cultures in one volume, the first of its kind.
There were hundreds of entries from entries from across the world. The EALLU food book faced stiff competition and was nominated in as many as 4 categories as well as the main prize itself - Best Food Book of the World, across all categories. The book was 1 of 16 nominees for the main prize, selected from contributions from 116 National States and was a delivery from the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group project EALLU.
"To receive such an award from the mainstream food publishing industry is a powerful recognition of the richness and depth of a focal point of our cultures, our relationship to food. This is much more than just a book of recipes”, says Chair Mikhail Pogodaev of Association of World Reindeer Herders: “This is about Arctic indigenous peoples' deep knowledge about food, raw materials, processing and conservation, food security, health and wellbeing – It’s about our food traditions, our traditional nomadic lifestyles, our local economies, our philosophy and our worldviews."
The book is a product of an Arctic Council project entitled EALLU: Indigenous Youth, Arctic Change and Food Culture. The project is initiated and led by the Association of World Reindeer Herders (the circumpolar NGO for all 24 indigenous reindeer herding peoples), in close partnership with 5 Arctic States and the 6 indigenous organisations of the Arctic Council.
Read the full press release here.