## Plants Are Family Too
# Sikoohkotooki Home Herbalism Circle
### *“[T]he most radical thing that we can be doing is just relating to the land and experiencing joy on the land.”* Dr. Clint Carrol (2021)


The intention for home herbalism circle is to grow a community of plant lovers and home herbalists in the city of Sikoohkotooki and surrounding region. The home herbalist circle will offer personalised ways for its participants to find their way back to our own ancestral herbal traditions and our innate ability to amplify healing in community.

As humble, dedicated interpreters of plant teachings and wisdom, we can gently encourage each other to learn how to listen and hear for ourselves this mysterious language of roots, leaves and flowers. With warmth and curiosity, and within an environment of true community we will develop our own herbal medicine paths by forging direct relationships to the more-than-human world. A growing self-awareness, cultural competence, equity literacy, and reflection on socio-political positionality are part of this empowerment journey.

**Pre-requisite:** curiosity and love for learning about plants and yourself.

## A Statement of Need
There is a great need for people around the globe to heal from colonial harm. (Re)Visiting the land and/ or making new (plant) friends can help us initiate and sustain necessary healing processes. Many people in Sikoohkotooki and surrounding region have expressed a strong desire to learn more about plants and healthy ways of living together in family and community.

Good Feather describes this reorientation as a stage in someone’s life when the person understands that, “healing is just the process of finding our way back to our original design. It can help you come to terms with the embarrassing and wounded parts of yourself-and realise exactly who you are meant to be and your purpose on this earth.” (p.x, 2021)

This project is based on the belief that re-connecting to our ancestral roots and traditions of herbal community care, can heal and empower us people as we (re)-align our conscience, intuition and values. We are all part of a greater whole and connecting with plant beings is a powerful way to come to know that we play an active role in this world. How we view it, shapes how we treat ourselves and other beings.


## What will I learn?
**This project is open and useful to people of all backgrounds, since it presents flexible entry points to learning about local plants and ecosystems, harvesting protocols and medicine making.**

Knowing about the medicinal properties of plants and their spirits provides us with an ability to become more self-reliant regarding our own health and that of our communities. Feeling that we have choice in how we treat and prevent illnesses, can help us build a positive attitude of empowerment and connect with the land we live on in meaningful and caring ways.

Simons (November, 2021), the co-founder of an innovative non-profit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet, has beautifully articulated the need for self-care and love as essential in those who engage in activism and change-making. It is thus a driving principle behind the design of the home herbalism circle, which intends to deepen our capacity to love ourselves and others [because]” as we do so, we can become far more effective allies and advocates for changing the systems that oppress us and destroy so many of us.”

The home herbalism circle also offers tools to contextualize herbalism within the greater systems of oppression that impact health and healing. It will help understand ancestral reconnection as a decolonial practice and create brave spaces throughout the program to address how appropriation, exploitation, and commodification impact community health and well-being.


## Monthly Schedule (May-September)
The Home Herbalist Circle will gather bi-monthly over the growing season 2023, starting in May and ending in September. Each of the five months we will be exploring specific values that support health and well-being in ourselves and others through relationship-building, hospitality and care. This includes foundational skills such as relationship building through communal plant observation and tending, medicine harvesting, making, and sharing. We will visit the land and reconnect to intention and ritual. We also deepen our connection through Plant Spirit Medicine.

**Every month, there will be two meetings for the group.You can decide which one of the two you want to attend. This will hopefully give you enough flexibility to work with your personal schedules.**
1. in-person meeting one evening every the month 6.30-9.30 pm
2. You also receive online video recordings with background information and hands-on instructions to make the medicines of the month.

The in person meeting will happen in an accessible location outside. These in person interactions will include a variety of different experiential learning activities such as circle sharing, grounding exercises, herbal tasting and sensing experiences, journalling, problem solving, etc.

**June Lethbridge College Coulee Walk**

Option one: Friday June 2nd from 6:30 to 9:30 PM

Option two: Tuesday June 6 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM

**July London Road garden**
Option one: Friday July 21 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM

Option two: Tuesday July 25 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM

**August Field Trip to Naapi's garden**


**POSTPONED with changed location ~~September Popson Park~~**

Saturday October 21, 2023, 1-4 pm in the [Galt Museum](https://www.galtmuseum.com/events/flora-foundations-herbalism-plant-circle)

### Monthly Explorations

| Month | :seedling: May | :rose: June | :cherry_blossom: July | :sunny: August | :fallen_leaf: October |
| ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| theme | replenish | tending | rejoice | sustain | share |
| stories | origin stories | stories of protection | stories of our ancestors | Naapi stories | our personal stories |
| values | gratitude and generosity | respect and honour | honesty and integrity | humility and humbleness | reciprocity |
| element | earth | water | fire | wood | air |
| season | spring | late spring | summer | late summer | fall |
| neophyte plants | Dandelion, Burdock, Chickweed, Goutweed | Nettle, Rose, Onion, Linden, Fireweed, Hawthorn, | Milky oats, Cherries, Raspberry, Red clover, Rosemary, Chamomile, | Plantain, Yarrow | Elderberry, Echinacea, Garlic, Mullein, Calendula |
| native plants | Birch, Pineapple weed, Cottonwood | Tobacco, Sweet pine, Sweetgrass, Spruce, Fir | Mint, Licorice, Mugwort | Bergamot, Chokecherry | Willow, Sage |
| system | digestions: liver and kidney | heart and spirit | nervous system and memory | skin | immune system |
| emotions | letting go; moving out of stagnation | working through emotions: love, loss/grief, etc. | relieving stress and finding a sense of calm and peace | building balance | sense of well-being |
| medicine | tea, decoction, spring greens, sirup | Smoke cleanse, spirit medicine | oxymel, fruit leathers | tinctures, infused vinegar | bone broth, salves |
| spiritual practice | setting intentions: being of the good heart | grounding and being present | sacred spaces, home altar | dreaming | becoming sovereign |
| land-based experience | preparing the ground, planting seeds, spring walk | greeting the coulees in Sikoohkotooki | visiting each other's gardens and telling stories | experiencing the gentle medicine of trees | conducting an honourable harvest |
| personal reflection | *Who am I? What do I need to thrive? Who are my teachers? Who do I want to be?* | *Who shares the immediate environment with me?* | *Who are my ancestors? What were the herbal practices?* | *How can I help my family be well?* | *What can I do to contribute to community health and well-being?* |
| Guest Speakers | **May 1**: Ahstanskiaki [Sandra Manyfeathers/ Kainai educator ] ; **May 29:** Jennifer Williams [farmer and seed keeper] from [Wild Dreams Farm](https://www.wilddreamsfarm.org/) | Jennifer Louise Taylor [singer, songwriter, educator] | TBD| Api'soomaahka | TBD |
| in-person learning activities | aatsimoihkan, introductions, exploring our senses: taste, goal setting, sharing in circle, plant meditation | grounding activity, observations in place, creating a study site, exploring our senses: smell, embodying plants through art, preparing for summer solstice | plant meditation, circle sharing: examining our "long bodies", exploring our senses: listen | tree meditation, exploring our senses: touch, reflect on family health (including non-natal), | Share each other's plant creations (including crafts, food and medicines) |

**Learning will be participant-driven to traverse the following outcomes in intentional and experiential ways:**

* adopt values that motivate you to contribute to community health and healing
* actively contribute to the learning in our herbal community
* use listening, observing, feeling, sharing as a way to get to know plants and the lands in more holistic ways
* nourish and heal using your original herbal systems and medicines that connect you with your ancestral herbal lineage
* implement a model of decolonial health care that blends science with folklore and esoteric knowledge

**The approach to teaching and learning in the home herbalism circle is first and foremost an experiential one, where we learn by actively engaging with one another and the information we hope to implement into to our very personal and unique lives.**

Depending on personal interests and health needs, the home herbalism circle participants will choose one or two plants per month to explore and build a closer relationship with. Plant knowledge has been passed on through community interactions for millennia, and our own plant community will work together to continue the ancient plant traditions.

In contrast to most Western herbalism training delivered today, we will not focus on the study of single constituents as is often done in botany or chemistry. Instead, we will try to revive our senses, spirituality and intuition, which will help us link what is known today to what our ancestors knew.

### **| Community events from May - October |**

:seedling: **May 6, 2023 from 10 am-12.30pm** Jane's walk on Saturday, **'[Meeting plant family in the London Road area](https://www.facebook.com/events/235149935692715?active_tab=about)'** starting and ending **in Kinsman Park** |

:gift_heart: **October 21, 2023, 1-4 pm. **Galt Museum [Flora Foundation Event](https://www.galtmuseum.com/events/flora-foundations-herbalism-plant-circle):** medicine making workshop and gifting | etc.

## Registration

#### Registration has started and will continue until April 27, 2023. It secures you a spot in the circle, so can attend the two monthly events and receive complimentary foods and medicines as part of the experience.

Please note that the registration fee is not a salary to the host of the home herbalism circle, but will instead be used to cover the herbal medicine provided to create your learning experiences. The sliding scale will hopefully also allow us to crowdsource the honorariums for Elder and guest speaker engagement. If you can afford and want to support Blackfoot Elders and other guest speakers to enrich our community learning, please choose the 3rd option.

#### **Sliding scale**
**Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC):** 0 CAD
**General Rate:** 50 CAD
**Engage Elders/ Guest-speakers rate:** 100 CAD

Please register by accessing [Eventbrite tickets here](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sikoohkotooki-home-herbalism-circle-registration-606681188767).

In case of further questions please reach out via email to [e-mail]

## Community Collaboration

As residents on Siksikaiksáahko, that is traditional Blackfoot territory, we can learn much from their Blackfoot stewards, most importantly how relating to others, meaning both human and the more-than-human kin, can (re)-ignite in us a capacity to fully feel, love, and reciprocate.Learning from Indigenous people, we can re-build the skills of respect and observation to live in considerate relation to a constantly changing environment.

I am grateful to the input and inspiration that my (plant) friends and teachers, including Api’soomaahka, Joseph Yellowhorn, Renée Camilla, Sam Roberts, Rosemary Gladstar, Wolf-Dieter Storl, and others have given me, because they teach me to engage with herbalism in most ethical and meaningful ways.


## Finding our Place of Contribution

I hope that by learning together in the home herbal circle, we will each find our unique purpose in life much like the Indian woman activist, scientist, and farmer Vandana Shiva has so aptly described it below:

> We find our particular place of contribution. I have always said, we are not atlases carrying the Earth on our shoulder, the Earth is carrying us. Our work is to tread lightly on this beautiful Earth, but our work is also to find a place for service to find where in her web is our best contribution. And always being aware that someone else is making a contribution somewhere else, and to be in resonance. That is the power, our true power is the inner power of doing the right thing, knowing the right face by observing, listening, living, and responding to others’ pain through giving your power. And there is nobody, there is nobody who doesn’t have power. That is both my understanding as a physicist, as well as a woman standing as an activist for 50 years, that we have power, it’s when we forget we have power, when we let others run us, we become powerless, and we start to lose our own confidence, in our knowledge, in our strength and in our compassion (Young, 2022).

### References
Good Feather, D. (2021). Think Indigenous. Native American Spirituality for a Modern World. Hay House.

Simons, N. (2021, November 12). From Discipline to Discipleship: Cultivating Love, Collaboration & Imagination. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdbsbRY4UVA

Young, A. (Nov 2, 2022). Transcript: DR. VANDANA SHIVA on Diverse Expressions of a Living Earth /311. Retrieved 4 November 2022, from https://forthewild.world/podcast-transcripts/vandana-shiva-on-diverse-expressions-of-a-living-earth-311

Young, A. (August 10, 2022) For the Wild Podcast with Dr. CLINT CARROLL on Stewarding Homeland/ 299 (No. 299). Retrieved 1 December 2022, from https://forthewild.world/listen/dr-clint-carroll-on-stewarding-homeland-299

#### Media Attributions

Plant treasures © Jördis Weilandt
home herbalism circle © Jördis Weilandt