Food Sovereignty and Well-Being TEK Lecture Series | Lunch & Learn - Brantford Campus

Tawnya Brant is a Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan citizen of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and the chef-owner of Yawékon Foods, an Indigenous catering and educational company rooted in Haudenosaunee traditional and contemporary foodways. She is the host of APTN’s One Dish One Spoon, with season two airing in May 2026, and a Top Chef Canada Season 10 finalist.

With over 30 years in the restaurant industry, Chef Tawnya has been featured on CTV’s The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, The Social, Milk Masters 2024, Top Chef season 12- judge and APTN In Focus, and on the covers of Food & Drink Canada and Menu Magazine. Tawnya has also been honoured to be a featured speaker at the Penn State Speakers Forum and received an Alumni of Distinction Award from Mohawk College in Entrepreneurship.  

Through her work, she continues to share Indigenous food knowledge across North America while honouring Haudenosaunee culinary and agricultural traditions.

Kitty Lickers is a grandma, auntie, mother, and a storyteller. Kitty is Onondaga from Six Nations of the Grand River. She is engaged in every kind of food activity that leads toward access and sustainability. From running cooking classes to cooking on APTN programs with chefs, Kitty believes in cooking, growing, eating, preserving, and sharing good food. She teaches part-time at McMaster University and works with her granddaughter. She is always striving toward sovereignty and is a firm believer in the connections to each other, land, and everything we have.

Dr. Adrianne Xavier is an Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies (and Anthropology) at McMaster University. She completed her undergraduate degree in Anthropology at McMaster and earned both her MA and doctorate from Royal Roads University. Her doctoral work focused on Indigenous food sovereignty. She teaches in the areas of Contemporary Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Food Security and Food Systems, Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Methodologies. Adrianne is the newest lead of the Indigenous Mentorship Network for Ontario focusing on the support of students, faculty and Indigenous research in the broad spectrum of Indigenous Health. Her research interests include Indigenous food security, Indigenous land connections and rematriation, Indigenous foodways and Indigenous ways of knowing. Adrienn’s community is the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, where she works to grow the understanding and capacity around food security and sovereignty.