The goal for the Plant Based Native cooking video project is help create the opportunity of healthy, vegan lifestyles by making new media aimed at the Navajo people (a Native American tribe). Since media in the Navajo language is highly looked upon on the Navajo reservation, the vegan cooking videos would be in “Diné bizaad/Navajo language,” with English subtitles so it would be accessible to a broader audience. –This would also be a fun way to help expand the global vegan community in a diverse way. A lot of people in the Navajo community are curious about vegan, healthy, organic food and how to prepare it (especially after the government has been offering the Navajo community food with no nutritional value for over a century). –Navajo community members are also curious about a vegan lifestyle for the health benefits, as diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol are an epidemic on the reservation (a 27, 413 square mile food desert with only 13 grocery stores that serve food with low nutritional value). The Plant Based Native cooking videos will give the Navajo community new media of food that is not commercials of fast food or meat driven restaurants.
After the Navajo treaty of 1868 with the US government, Navajo were forced to live on a reservation where traditional foods, along with other cultural practices, were banned. Navajos were then forced to get their food through government commodity box programs and grocery stores that have unhealthy selections. Food-related diseases are currently common on the Navajo reservation because of the sudden change in diet over the past 150 years. This is why it is so important for the Navajo community to become more conscious of the modern food industry and to take initiative of their own eating habits. Producing new vegan media in the Navajo language and demonstrating traditional Navajo vegan dishes juxtaposed with modern vegan cooking videos will create community based media and vegan appeal to the Navajo community.