Important ingredients in traditional medicines including cottonwood, berries, tree and Oregon grape can be found in Brackendale, according to local ethnobotanist, Leigh Joseph (Styawat).
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the traditional knowledge of plants.
Joseph, who is Squamish Nation, will be presenting "Gathering Medicine" at the Brackendale Art Gallery on Sunday, Jan. 19, as part of the Eagle Festival Cultural Events on this month at the BAG.
Through film, photos, and a discussion, she will look at the cultural renewal and connection to plants, — plant foods, plant medicines, and materials.
She will look at how "rebuilding that relationship connects Squamish Nation people, particularly, to this place and to this landscape," she said. "It brings in the resurgence of language, which is very connected to this knowledge as well as rebuilding cultural approaches to health in the sense that you need to be outside and getting reacquainted with the natural world as part of the reconnection to cultural plant knowledge."
One of the misconceptions about plant knowledge is that relationships are utilitarian, Joseph said.
"That it is simply, 'How do we use or environment,' but it really exists as a shift from thinking about plants as resources to thinking of them as relatives."
As relatives, plants are beings that are part of the collective community so when something is taken from a plant or a tree, there are protocols to follow, according to Joseph.
"With bark harvesting, for example, there are cultural protocols around how much to take, when to take it and how you only strip from a tree once," she said.
The gallery is a family place for Joseph. Her dad is an artist who had showings there and so she grew up visiting it often, she said.
In addition to Joseph, other speakers featured in the Natural World Lecture Series at The BAG include geologist and a former mayor of Bowen Island, Bob Turner, who will present "Getting up close with our wild neighbours" on Jan. 12. He will share some of his marine animal encounters in Howe Sound over the years.
On Jan. 13, former Green Party leader Elizabeth May will speak about "Canada's Global Role in the Climate Emergency."
Mayor Karen Elliott will present "From Svalbard to Squamish: Joining a global dialogue on Climate Change,” on Jan. 18.
The mayor and several Squamish residents visited Norway to send off Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Fålun Strøm, who are in the midst of a nine-month science project in the Arctic called Hearts in the Ice.
All presentations start at 7 p.m. and entrance is by donation.
The annual Brackendale festival also includes Art of the Natural World Eagle Art Show with eagle images by local wildlife photographers Brian Aikens, Tim Cyr, David Buzzard, Israel Cruces, Breanna Wilson and more.
Find more information on events through January at the BAG at www.brackendaleartgallery.com.
This story originally appeared in The Squamish Chief on Jan. 5.
