Noovalawu: Preparing Food & Cooking A Meal

Kur itam piw itaa lavayiy aw pootota itam pu’ Hopi nösiwqat ang tungwantotani. Tsuku pi teevep tuumoytangwu pu’ piw Hopiikwa yu’a’atangwu. Pay itam put an haqam hintsats kyaakyangw yu’a’atotani. Hopinosiwqa pay soosok hiita aw a’wiwa, ngahut, itaa unangwvasiy. Qaa’ö pi pas Hopit aw himu’, Hopit qatsimkiwa’at. Hopit nana’löngot qaa’öt aniwnayangwu. Sakwaput, sakwapngumit pas akw noovalalwangwu. Maana pay tsayngaqw noovalawngwuqe novatwi’yta, hiisa’ hiita akw noovataniqe pay nanvoti’yta.

 This lesson is about Hopi food. Like the Hopi ritual clown, we eat and learn our language and culture. Hopi foods are used spiritually, medicinally, and for many other cultural reasons. Corn and corn products are central to the Hopi diet and, therefore, to Hopi food preparation. The corn grown by Hopi people comes in many different colors. Blue corn is ground and used in many dishes. Hopi women do NOT use recipes. These women just know when they have added the right amount of each ingredient by the look and feel of what they are preparing. Many of them learned to cook during childhood.

To expand our understanding of the Hopi language, Noovalawu teaches how to use adjectives to describe people, places and things (nouns). Postpositions help us to describe the action of a sentence (verb). All of these lessons are taught in the context of Hopi food. Nöswisa’a! Come eat!