chok maja toits – not Queens nos my
traditional name is tights – not and I
have two nicknames cease Weiss and the
indigenous plant diva so I want to share
about traditional medicines and what
they mean and to start with I want us to
pretend we’re walking through a forest a
lush Pacific west coast forest and to
think about what that means when you’re
walking through the forest what do you
see what do you see when you’re out
there you see lush coniferous trees
filled with lichens and mosses and ferns
and what do you feel what do you hear
you can hear the language of the forest
so I want you to we’ve done this already
I want you to breathe deeply three times
when you’re in the forest and you do
that the moist air goes into your lungs
filling up your respiratory tract
reaching into your body oxygenating
helping you to feel the medicines that
surround you the lichens the ferns the
mosses
mycology all of this is floating through
the air so when you’re in a forest
breathing that moist air the medicine is
already entering your body when we think
about what we hear we hear the language
of the plants the doctrine of signatures
a plant’s likeness to our body in colors
shapes and
textures what are these what are these
things that we see and hear the plants
likeness to our body is very important
the colors they catch our eyes the
textures we feel it so we think about
the Reds and the purples and what they
look like when we’re out in this lush
Pacific Northwest Coast forests we think
about all the things from the from the
shoreline where the seaweeds tumble and
roll up through the many heights of the
forest the ecosystems up into the high
mountains where snow is covered at all
times of the year we think about the
medicine cabinet that is before us what
is out there to fill our minds our
bodies and our spirits and to feed the
wellness that we seek when we look into
the forest we we are seeking things we
have on our mind but things can come to
us we don’t expect and on that level why
are we picking it to make teas teas that
will drink that will infuse into our
bodies tinctures we can make tinctures
that carry the medicines with us
wherever we go can do that with SAVs and
other herbal concoctions and infusions
it’s a veritable medicine cabinet in the
forest and we think about the specific
plants we’re seeking what is out there
to gather into our personal medicine
toolkit lichens and mosses ferns all of
these things I’ve talked about the red
the purple berries those feed our blood
our muscles and our organs we think
about how they are filled with the
nutrients like iron and iron
supplementation the berries emanate our
blood and so we’re drawn
to that to cleanser blood we think about
how yellow barks and flowers and other
roots and parts of the plant that we
gather to make teas to heal things like
our gallbladder our gallbladder can be
healed through these medicines drinking
a tea an infusion of sorts
arnica how it has the ability to be
rubbed onto our hands and our body parts
to soothe sore muscles tendons and
rubbing that in reaches in below the
surface feeds its way into our muscles
and joints and tendons on a level we
can’t see but we can feel this is the
language of the plants they carry the
medicines we seek to heal ourselves it’s
all before us other shapes and textures
we see on the landscape come from other
plants it could come in the form of
plants that help our skin and help our
joints and other parts that we don’t
always think of so raspberry leaf salmon
berry leaf blackberry leaf all have the
ability to deal with parts of our bodies
like in a woman our reproductive organs
looking at the leaves of salmon berry we
see uterine muscles fallopian tubes
ovaries and all of those heal we think
about how plants with sharp edges work
below our waistline and how salmonberry
as well as dandelion leaf and roots have
the ability to go in and and heal parts
of our body we don’t normally think of
of using those for plants with textures
like Mullen Mullen has fine fur fine
furry leaves that resemble the villi in
our lung
and can get into our lungs for drinking
a tea and release all of that pain and
tension helping us to COFF when we need
to calming an Alaskan attack all of
these things come into play when we’re
drinking teas or using these medicines
in ways that work for us
we look at stinging nettles how rubbing
stinging nettle onto our hands if
they’re swollen from arthritis can
totally release toxins I know this from
personal experience having rubbed
stinging nettle on myself several times
and had people saying don’t do it I’m
like of course I’ll do it I don’t want
to carry that pain with me I don’t want
to give that to the next generation so I
release it I take that step I’m brave I
I encourage others to try it the natural
forest is there as a medicine cabinet
for us as I said the fungi that grow on
the trees through the mosses they live a
symbiotic life they share that energy
that knowledge they take us to another
place within ourselves even being in the
forest sitting on the floor of the
forest and moss walking through the
forest paths sitting in a creek or
wading through a creek all of those
things connect us to that natural world
that we take for granted we don’t we
don’t respect it enough we have to have
respect for the next generations
the indigenous foods the wild foods the
things that our ancestors use for many
years before us and I know that’s not
just from my perspective as an
indigenous person I know that we all
have stories that lead us back to our
grandfathers our grandmothers and remind
us how at one time we lived in a better
way
passing that knowledge on teaching our
next generation how to read the forest
how to glean that information in a way
that propels them forward and saves the
planet along the way we have a
responsibility to protect the natural
world to assure that the next
generations ahead of us will have what
we have today and to look at how we live
how do we manage waste how do we relate
to the natural world when we go outdoors
how do we teach our next generation
about that and what we can take from
today and bring to tomorrow leaving a
place for our future ancestors hi chica
[Music]
[Applause]
traditional name is tights – not and I
have two nicknames cease Weiss and the
indigenous plant diva so I want to share
about traditional medicines and what
they mean and to start with I want us to
pretend we’re walking through a forest a
lush Pacific west coast forest and to
think about what that means when you’re
walking through the forest what do you
see what do you see when you’re out
there you see lush coniferous trees
filled with lichens and mosses and ferns
and what do you feel what do you hear
you can hear the language of the forest
so I want you to we’ve done this already
I want you to breathe deeply three times
when you’re in the forest and you do
that the moist air goes into your lungs
filling up your respiratory tract
reaching into your body oxygenating
helping you to feel the medicines that
surround you the lichens the ferns the
mosses
mycology all of this is floating through
the air so when you’re in a forest
breathing that moist air the medicine is
already entering your body when we think
about what we hear we hear the language
of the plants the doctrine of signatures
a plant’s likeness to our body in colors
shapes and
textures what are these what are these
things that we see and hear the plants
likeness to our body is very important
the colors they catch our eyes the
textures we feel it so we think about
the Reds and the purples and what they
look like when we’re out in this lush
Pacific Northwest Coast forests we think
about all the things from the from the
shoreline where the seaweeds tumble and
roll up through the many heights of the
forest the ecosystems up into the high
mountains where snow is covered at all
times of the year we think about the
medicine cabinet that is before us what
is out there to fill our minds our
bodies and our spirits and to feed the
wellness that we seek when we look into
the forest we we are seeking things we
have on our mind but things can come to
us we don’t expect and on that level why
are we picking it to make teas teas that
will drink that will infuse into our
bodies tinctures we can make tinctures
that carry the medicines with us
wherever we go can do that with SAVs and
other herbal concoctions and infusions
it’s a veritable medicine cabinet in the
forest and we think about the specific
plants we’re seeking what is out there
to gather into our personal medicine
toolkit lichens and mosses ferns all of
these things I’ve talked about the red
the purple berries those feed our blood
our muscles and our organs we think
about how they are filled with the
nutrients like iron and iron
supplementation the berries emanate our
blood and so we’re drawn
to that to cleanser blood we think about
how yellow barks and flowers and other
roots and parts of the plant that we
gather to make teas to heal things like
our gallbladder our gallbladder can be
healed through these medicines drinking
a tea an infusion of sorts
arnica how it has the ability to be
rubbed onto our hands and our body parts
to soothe sore muscles tendons and
rubbing that in reaches in below the
surface feeds its way into our muscles
and joints and tendons on a level we
can’t see but we can feel this is the
language of the plants they carry the
medicines we seek to heal ourselves it’s
all before us other shapes and textures
we see on the landscape come from other
plants it could come in the form of
plants that help our skin and help our
joints and other parts that we don’t
always think of so raspberry leaf salmon
berry leaf blackberry leaf all have the
ability to deal with parts of our bodies
like in a woman our reproductive organs
looking at the leaves of salmon berry we
see uterine muscles fallopian tubes
ovaries and all of those heal we think
about how plants with sharp edges work
below our waistline and how salmonberry
as well as dandelion leaf and roots have
the ability to go in and and heal parts
of our body we don’t normally think of
of using those for plants with textures
like Mullen Mullen has fine fur fine
furry leaves that resemble the villi in
our lung
and can get into our lungs for drinking
a tea and release all of that pain and
tension helping us to COFF when we need
to calming an Alaskan attack all of
these things come into play when we’re
drinking teas or using these medicines
in ways that work for us
we look at stinging nettles how rubbing
stinging nettle onto our hands if
they’re swollen from arthritis can
totally release toxins I know this from
personal experience having rubbed
stinging nettle on myself several times
and had people saying don’t do it I’m
like of course I’ll do it I don’t want
to carry that pain with me I don’t want
to give that to the next generation so I
release it I take that step I’m brave I
I encourage others to try it the natural
forest is there as a medicine cabinet
for us as I said the fungi that grow on
the trees through the mosses they live a
symbiotic life they share that energy
that knowledge they take us to another
place within ourselves even being in the
forest sitting on the floor of the
forest and moss walking through the
forest paths sitting in a creek or
wading through a creek all of those
things connect us to that natural world
that we take for granted we don’t we
don’t respect it enough we have to have
respect for the next generations
the indigenous foods the wild foods the
things that our ancestors use for many
years before us and I know that’s not
just from my perspective as an
indigenous person I know that we all
have stories that lead us back to our
grandfathers our grandmothers and remind
us how at one time we lived in a better
way
passing that knowledge on teaching our
next generation how to read the forest
how to glean that information in a way
that propels them forward and saves the
planet along the way we have a
responsibility to protect the natural
world to assure that the next
generations ahead of us will have what
we have today and to look at how we live
how do we manage waste how do we relate
to the natural world when we go outdoors
how do we teach our next generation
about that and what we can take from
today and bring to tomorrow leaving a
place for our future ancestors hi chica
[Music]
[Applause]
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