Sweet on the Tongue

by River Ian Kerstetter

January 28, 2025

·

Bilingual, Comics

In her debut comic River Ian Kerstetter shares sweet moments in the kitchen with her Oneida Grandma.

Image: A digital illustration of a slice of pie in the color red. Created by River Ian Kerstetter.

Image: A digital image depicting a can of red beans & a bag of red chile with red smoke flowing up from a pot of red chile. The following is written in a handwritten black font: Today...I made chili. Red beans & red chile. Eager to rest on hungry tongues. Grandma's kitchen heats up. As I sway from counter to stove. Her laugh, I love. A book is open to a page that says, "Botany" and features a red plant. Grandma doesn't remember as much of our language as her parents did. Boarding schools offered warmth in return for English. I make sure the chili is good.

Image: A digital illustration with red, black and white text that reads: Grandma used to hear the adults gossip and make jokes in Oneida at night. Laughter bursting from the kitchen "was a sweet sound," she says. A bowl with red chile is drawn with black and white text squares next to it that say: We can't wait for the chili to cool. She blows and teaches me a word: yawéku. It means taste good! She recalls the anthropologist whose daughter said yawéku. So proud to own this part of us. A little white girl somewhere speaks more oneida than me.

Image: A digital illustration in the colors red, black, and white. A red border decorates the top of this image. The following is written in a black handwritten font: Yawéku she has me repeat it Yawéku until I get it Yawéku the warble on the 'E' the 'K' becoming a 'G' Yawéku I can see her sitting across from me, a little girl, mouth full of syllables & questions. I pray that it doesn't slip from my English speaking mind. So I think of pie crust and honey. When grandma speaks sometimes...

Image: A digital illustration in the colors black, red, and white depicting a series of scenes featuring dandelions, a pie sitting near a window with butter and flour beside it. The following text is written in white handwritten text: She can't help but laugh. I know that sometimes things can't always be said. Today I made pumpkin pie. The crust was a little tough. But Grandma said, Yawéku.

Artist note: Rose Skenandore Kerstetter was a remarkable woman, loving grandmother, and one of my inspirations to become an artist. She served in the US Army during World War II and graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1979. As an artist she devoted her career to studying, practicing and teaching traditional Oneida pottery, one of several Haudenosaunee artists of her generation responsible for bringing these traditions into the present after centuries of colonial erasure. She lived to be 104 years old, making her journey to the spirit world in 2023. This comic is dedicated to her memory and bright spirit.

Image: Black and white self portrait by River Ian Kerstetter. She wears a floral top, chain necklaces, earrings in the shape of crescent moons, and her hair in two thin braids. A plant obscures the lower left corner.

About the artist: River Ian Kerstetter (she/her) is a designer and writer living in Potawatomi land aka Chicago. River is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is probably playing a Legend of Zelda game at the moment.

Sweet on the Tongue

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