Dandelioness Herbals on Moccasin Tracks radio program with Linda Black Elk

In late May I joined Deb Reger as co-host on her radio program Moccasin Tracks on WRUV/University of Vermont to discuss plants, healing, and justice with Linda Black Elk.

Linda Black Elk was coordinator of the Oceti Sakowin Prayer Camps' Medic and Healers Council at Standing Rock. She is an ethno-botanist, healer, herbalist, teacher, mother, Water Protector and so much more. During our conversation she talks about the ongoing Water Protector Camps and support that has been building for the Mni Wiconi Clinic which will be a free wholistic clinic at Standing Rock. She also shares about restoration ecology work being organized for the area of the former camps in N. Dakota.

Later during the program, I speak with Deb about my recent visit to the Arizona/Sonora border, doing humanitarian aid work supporting those crossing the desert with No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, People Helping People, and Kino Border Initiative/Iniciative Kino para la Frontera,  We also talk about ancestry, herbs for emotional support, mutual aid, rural organizing, and give a shout out to Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante and their Milk With Dignity campaign.

The theme of the program and our time together was reciprocity and relationship.  May we continue to cultivate relationships with each other and create reciprocity with the plants that nourish us and our movements for justice.


Our conversation with Linda Black Elk here:::





My conversation with Deb Reger here:::

The conversation felt like a tea party, the station felt like an electric garden!  I brought along  Restorative Moons at the station.  This remedy is burnout prevention/repair in a bottle, with rose, milky oats,  a collaboration by Dandelioness Herbals and Wake Robin Botanicals. 

Thanksgiving, Day of Mourning, Ferguson, Black Friday, and supporting ourselves through these times

I've been thinking ahead to next week and the events taking place.  This time of harvest, feasts, and grief.  Here in Vermont, US the leaves have turned their fiery autumn colors and fallen.  Now it's the snow's turn to fall.  Halloween, Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos have passed and though we may have taken down our personal and community altars, we may be holding our ancestors and other loved ones who have passed a little closer to us than at other times of the year. 

Like in years past, next Thursday many families will be gathering from near and far to feast together on local/traditional foods.  Many will be observing this day as the National Day of Mourning, organized by the United American Indians of New England, there at the event in Plymouth, MA, and attending the potluck after, or in spirit from wherever we may be.  The next day, only one day after giving thanks for all that we have and/or for mourning the generations of racism and genocide that have poisoned this land,  hordes will push and shove and grab (but hopefully this year not trample to death and added to the lives lost from the mayhem of previous Black Friday) to buy stuff.  Stuff probably made in sweatshops and sold at stores owned by corporations that refuse to pay their workers a living wage, while making gazillions of dollars and not paying a cent in taxes.  Others will be gathering in front of said stores celebrating Buy Nothing Day, in support of said workers and protesting said corporations  and the vicious cycle of capitalism (devaluing workers, buying elections, destroying the environment, etc).

This year, Ferguson and communities all over the US also await the verdict to see if the police will finally be held accountable, or if yet another white officer walks free after murdering a person of color.  Events are planned all over the country.   In Mexico, our compaNer@s continue the search for their loved ones in Guerrero.  Elsewhere, and all over the world, people are organizing for justice too.  

There's so much to celebrate and so much to grieve.  And it's so important to come together in these times to support and feed one another.  Figuratively and literally.

However we pass this coming week, may it at least in part be a time to remember the foundation of the US - genocide, racism, stolen land, slavery, exploited labor - and to recommit ourselves to working for justice, in solidarity across lines of color, gender, nationality, ability, age, class, etc.  And for those of us born into privilege, may we reflect on how these dynamics still play out and how we contribute to them.  (This time of year is one of retrospection about my ancestry, being a descendant of two who came over on the Mayflower and enslaved the indigenous peoples upon arrival, setting up a precedence for violent racism, land theft, and (Northern!) slavery that white people still benefit from today.  Being at the Day of Mourning at the site of their arrival felt like it was part of healing some ancestral wounds.)  May we take the lead from the communities most impacted by injustice, and recommit ourselves to unlearning the racism, white supremacy, and other forms of oppression that seek to divide us.  May we speak up both during mainstream Thanksgiving white-washing of history and in our daily lives in general when indigenous people are ignored, made silent, made fun of, disrespected, depicted in degrading/cartoonish/dehumanizing ways, and invaded - both literally on their land, like at Black Mesa, and also their sacred cultural practices ~ plant medicine traditions, healing practices, and sacred ceremonial objects.

As we wait, feast, grieve, protest, and organize, may we call on the plants and the ancestors to support us in these times.  Here are some ways that we can practice self-care and collective-care, in solitude or in community.  For clarity: these are not shoulds!  These are suggestions intended to be supportive.  These are notes to myself too, for when I forget.

Take time to make tea with nourishing and relaxing herbs like Milky Oat Tops, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Tulsi (Holy Basil), Skullcap, and a pinch of Rose petals and Lavender flowers.  Many of these herbs not only calm the body, they also help heal the heart, support digestion, and lift our spirits.   You can get boxed tea, but if possible make your own tea blend where you can see the leaves and flowers and roots.  This is part of the medicine.  Add some honey if you need some sweetness.

Prepare an herbal bath or foot bath ~ sometimes a messy herbal/floral bath is just what we're needing, where every part of our beautiful bodies is bathed with bits of flower petals, leaves, and evergreen needles.  Directions here for an herbal bath in a tub or shower.  Also, a foot bath draws stress and zingy energy that can keep us from sleeping well, and sends it away with the bathwater.  Giving myself a mini-foot massage with cream as I begin and end my day always makes me feel both relaxed and grounded.

Eat nourishing foods as a form of medicine what makes your body feel good, both when you're eating and afterwards.  For me it's chicken and rice noodles and sweet potatoes and greens and baked apples.  My body just says yes! when I eat these.  What does your body say yes too?  What has your body been craving lately?  Also, taking bitters supports our livers which work so dang hard, and help us to digest and absorb the nutrients from all that good, nourishing food.

Massage our bodies with oils to ground and relax us  with olive, grapeseed, coconut, sunflower, sesame oils.  See what kind feels good on your skin.  And there's no need to go buy some expensive body oil.  If you have these unrefined oils in your home for cooking, use 'em on your skin!  Remember, our skin is our largest organ and it's best not to put on our skin anything we wouldn't put in our bodies.  You can add a few drops of essential oils, or infuse your oils with herbs if you like, but just plain oil can feel sooo good too!  My favorite is a blend of coconut and sesame (untoasted, and infused with chamomile flowers!) oils.

Burn candles, herbs, and incense or spray floral waters to shift the energy of our physical space

Participate/Don't  If joining up with others for a Day of Mourning or anti-racism/police violence event will feed your spirit, do it!  If you're feeling a bit (or a lot) burnt out and need some rest and relaxation, do it!  We can't be everywhere all the time and events aren't just about having a body count.  If we're going to be drained from attending, maybe our time would be better passed doing some of the nurturing things on this list.  Or hunting or finger painting or whatever you feel like.  It's about being in it for the long haul, not pushing ourselves to physically be at every event.  That said, it can be really encouraging and inspiring to share space with others who are passionate about social justice, and just feel all the range of emotions we're feeling, with collective witness to the pain of injustice.  You make the call and just know that you made a conscious, self-care-y decision. 

Fill out your In Case of (emotional) Emergency Form a self-care/community-care form to fill out when you’re feeling grounded, supported, calm, inspired, etc. To read when you’re not.  You can find it here.

Unplug while I'm a big fan of the people's media and keeping informed, it's also easy to get overstimulated and overwhelmed in a way that depletes, rather than feeds and inspires, us.  Check in with yourself, are you present in your body and choosing what you let into your space or are you going on auto-pilot and getting bombarded with information and images?  Take some time to unplug.  Turn off the phone, computer, radio, whatever gadget is demanding your attention.  And do some of the practices listed above, if they sound good to you.

sweet, vanilla-like Chamomile tea

Dandelioness Herbals also creates remedies to offer physical and emotional support within a culture of self-care and collective-care.  While you can enjoy these remedies at home, they are also convenient for bringing with you to rallies, gatherings, potlucks, when traveling, and wherever else you may go, when you may not be able to make tea, prepare a footbath, and do other self-care practices .  Relaxation in a Bottle,  Calm the Rage, Heart Elixir,  Relaxing Bitters,  Stay Ready,  Mercury's In Retrograde, Again?!, Yarrow Flower Essence for clear and strong boundaries, and others.  I'm happy to make a custom blend that is especially for you, where you're at, and what you're dealing with and focusing on.

May we transform next week and this season into an opportunity for healing and growth and renewed solidarity.

_______________________________________________________________
Photos by Dana L Woodruff/Dandelioness Herbals, from the top:  a wee bowl of Chamomile; Chamomile and Lavender harvest; basket of Lemon Balm; Milky Oat harvest;  Evergreen-Rose foot bath for the People's Spa; Make-it-as-we-go-along personalized Relaxation in a Bottle tincture and flower-infused oils for self-massage before bed/bathing from the Community Self-Care: Nourishing our Nervous Systems for the Long Haul workshop series; bee coming in for a Tulsi/Holy Basil landing; gathering Rose pollen; Yarrow for strong boundaries; and Chamomile tea.

St. Patrick's Solidarity

In grade school, I dyed my bangs green with food coloring on St. Patrick's Day.  That same green the Chicago River is dyed on that same day.  This day didn't have great significance to me.  I'd never been to Ireland, though I'd wanted to go since I was little. 

This year, though, St. Patrick's Day has a special meaning.  Not only because I've now been to Ireland and have heartstrings-attachment that isn't just a faraway 'someday...' wish to visit this ancestral homeland.  Today I'm thinking about the St. Patrick's Day celebrations today in Mexico.

What's Mexico have to do with St. Patrick's Day?!  Well...

Only a week after giving a Travel Talk on Ireland at Sovversiva Open Space, sharing stories and images of medicinal plants and wild foods (like seaweed!), urban gardens, the Famine/Starvation, and Sheela Na Gig from my various trips to the island, my compañerxs were in the Vermont statehouse, testifying and speaking out against injustice.  Grassroots community organizations have fought for an anti-biased policing policy by the VT State Police.  Though many communities are targeted and racially profiled, the group I'm most connected with is Migrant Justice, a grassroots organization of migrant farm workers in VT, and their allies. (The majority of migrant farm workers living in Vermont are originally from Mexico, with smaller numbers hailing from Guatemala and other countries.)  Despite the anti-biased policing policy, law enforcement officers continue to racially profile people of color - and continue to call Border Patrol when they stop people that they assume are undocumentated. 

I've often heard people claim that their family came to the US "the right way," whether that was in this lifetime or many generations ago, and that other immigrants should "get in line. (For more on this myth: here and here and here and the image here)  At a hearing addressing discrimination and bias a VT Representative asked a Latino speaker if he was a US citizen, after he *didn't* ask this of a previous white speaker from the same organization.  Another VT Representative claimed that he was part of the Irish community and basically said that they are all documented.  

Well, I'm not going to delve deep into Irish history, but I would like to recommend the film The Wind the Shakes the Barley to understand a bit about the British occupation of Ireland and the people's resistance.  I'd also like to recommend the book Famine Diary: Journey to a New World by James J. Mangan/Gerald Keegan for a personal account about the very intentional starvation of the Irish people by the British government/landlords, who stockpiled food and sent ships full of food to England while the people starved, were incarcerated in huge numbers, or were forced to flee the island.  The Irish that crossed the Atlantic and survived the journey, found more discrimination.  The NINA (No Irish Need Apply) sign below is just one example: 

Multiple times when I've been in Ireland, I've noticed a strong affinity and sense of solidarity with the people of Palestine.  This photo was taken in a Dublin pub, of the Irish and Palestinian flag hung side by side:

I didn't know until recently about the history of solidarity between the people of Ireland and Mexico as well...

La canción con subtítulos en español aca.

Mexican music by St. Patrick's Battalion Pipes & Drums 

"Banda de Gaitas del Batallon de San Patricio"

When I've been in Ireland and spoken with people about Migrant Justice, I've been told by people there that they have sons or cousins or other loved ones that are in the US without documentation.  Though they may be less targeted because Irish people tend to blend in with the racist idea of what a US American looks like and who "belongs" here (read: white), still people without documentation are forced to live with the constant stress of being deported and being unable to visit loved ones back home for fear of not being able to re-enter the US.  More about the 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the US here in "America's New Irish Immigrants."

While mainstream "honoring" of St. Patrick's Day often looks like wearing loads of green plastic and getting drunk, I'm reflecting on solidarity across oceans and human-made borders.  I'm grateful for all those who have resisted colonization and questioned racist ideas of who the enemy and scapegoat is.  To honor my ancestors and their struggles, learning more about how they were received and later the privileges they were given and we still are given, as well as what we lost, I'm standing in solidarity for racial and immigrant justice within what is now known as the US and beyond.  As descendants of those who survived -  whether it was crossing the ocean, a desert, mountains, or being from this land since the beginning (and I'm not talking about 1492 or 1776!) - we owe it to each other to end the cycle of dehumanization and work for the rights of all peoples.


For more info about Ireland and (im)migration, please see:
(Im)migration and Lip Balms for Social Justice?!

Talking Plants/Talking Justice: Plant Medicine and Social Justice Interview with Dana Woodruff of Dandelioness Herbals

I was recently interviewed by Ann Armbrecht, co-creator of Numen: The Nature of Plants!  You can check out the full interview here: Plant Medicine and Social Justice with Dana Woodruff. Ann Armbrecht also interviewed folk herbalist and food activist Sandra Lory of Mandala Botanicals here.  Thank you, Ann, for supporting grassroots community herbalism!


Plant Medicine And Social Justice With Dana Woodruff

From the first time I met Dana, I have been so impressed with both her knowledge of and dedication to the plants and herbal medicine and her willingness to talk about topics that herbalists don’t tend to talk about: healthy sexuality, gender identity, social justice and power, and more (you can read about some of those on her blog!). I have especially been interested in her work in prisons and with migrant farm workers, teaching them about herbs, learning from them, and helping them get rights they are often denied. Like Sandra Lory’s work (with whom Dana often teaches workshops), Dana is doing incredibly important work educating about self care and building community health and making sure that this knowledge is accessible to whoever wants it. I was thrilled to finally be able to hear about Dana’s work. Dana’s blog, Dandelioness Herbals is an incredible resource with recipes, resources, reflections and more. Dana also sells her herbal remedies at her Etsy shop. Check them out!

Ann: To start, I’d love to hear how you first got interested in herbal medicine, a bit about the training that you’ve had, and the focus of your work with plants.

Dana: Like so many raised in the US, much of my ancestral lineage has been lost by the process of assimilation.  My childhood in Central Maine wasn’t infused with the plant medicine traditions of my ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Living rurally, though, I was surrounded by plants.  My mom took us out on wildflower walks, in the spring Grammy and Pop-Pop took me to harvest Dandelion greens. We’d eat fiddleheads and we’d eat out of the gardens in the summer. I grew up in a family with a history of being healthworkers, crafters, and farmers.

Click here to read the entire interview...

Halloween, Offensive Costumes & Honoring our Ancestors

As the end of October draws near and we move into November and the colder, darker months of the year (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere), death is all around us.  Where I live the leaves turn fiery shades of red, orange, and yellow and fall to the ground. The killing frost turns our gardens from vibrant green to shades of brown and black. Kitchens are (hopefully) abundant with apples and winter squash. Canadian geese depart, flying south for the winter. Even if our cupboards are full with food to last us through the snowstorms and other uncertainties of winter, in our bones we remember a sense of scarcity, the threat of not making it through the barren months of the year. It's the season of grief and of letting go. And in this time of death, two cultures separated by an ocean and a sea celebrate the ancestors.

In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated only a day or two after Ireland's Samhain (pronounced sow-en), the pagan roots of the modern day Halloween. Personally I was not raised with these traditions. I dressed up as monsters and genies for Halloween, carved pumpkins, and went to my old babysitter's for popcorn balls and my neighbor's for candied apples. I was unaware that these festivities, though they changed over time, were derived from traditions from my own ancestry.

Beginning to attend Samhain gatherings and seeing the connections between the autumn season of loss and letting go, honoring my ancestors at this time just felt right. Once my grandmother and then my grandfather, and most recently my herbal teacher, passed through to the other side, honoring my ancestors became much more tangible for me. Rather than lighting candles for those whom I had never met, I now created altars with their photos, surrounded by objects of theirs that were left to me or that I knew that they would like. Since both Grammy and Pop-pop had a sweet tooth, I leave them chocolates and candies. During Samhain, it's said that the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest than all other times of the year and it's common for our ancestors to visit us in dreams. This is a time of remembrance, grief, and celebration. In a culture that fears death and most often avoids it altogether, creating space to honor our beloved dead feels healing, grounding, and timeless to me. Though Dia de los Muertos celebrations are new to me, it seems that there are strong similarities between these celebrations and Samhain. From what I've been told and shown, people in Mexico (and other countries as well, but most of my friends who celebrate Dia de los Muertos are from Mexico) create gorgeous altars filled with cempasúchil (Tagetes marigolds, also known as 'Flor de Muerto' or Flower of Death) and other flowers, sugar skulls, photos, candles, and other objects to remember and honor loved ones who have died. Like Samhain, this is a time of both reverence and celebration.

Dia de los Muertos altars.

Now, these practices are in stark contrast to mainstream U.S. Halloween culture. At a time where many people honor those who have gone before us and shaped who we are today - both those directly in our lives and those who lived many generations ago long before we arrived - common sights that directly disrespect the cultures and peoples that many of us descend from can cut particularly deep. Ridiculous Halloween decorations such as this:

Decoration of a witch who's
flown into a telephone pole.

may provide entertainment for some, for me it reminds me of witch burnings. It reminds me that there is much of my heritage that I did not receive - that's been lost forever - as it was burned up with those who were systematically targeted, tortured, and executed by the many-thousands or millions, depending on the source. (See Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, 1973. Text here. This is just one time period in one place on the planet, witch-hunts have happened in many times and places.)  Though witches historically have been, and continue to be, healers/herbalists in their communities, in stories, films, and Halloween costumes, they are portrayed as ugly, mean and sometimes green-faced old women.  Problematic representation for many reasons - ie anti-woman, ageist, anti-pagan.

Last year during Halloween-Samhain-Dia de los Muertos-time I saw Colorlines' "Seven Racist Costumes to Avoid This Halloween" post, which validating my gut-reactions to costumes such as "Afro" wigs, dressing as "a Mexican" or "Redneck," not to mention Blackface.  These are a few examples of the costumes that perpetuate racist and classist ideas - "exoticizing" entire groups of people, reinforcing and perpetuating stereotypes, and making light of the very real and ugly realities of racism and classism in this country. Just glancing briefly over those seven examples fills my mind with stories and images - Eurocentric ideals of beauty, Black women forced to straighten their hair to keep a job and/or be taken seriously while non-Black folks try on Afro wigs just for fun, "White trash" parties at my college where rich white kids would act out what they thought poor white folks did/ate/talked like, Life-threatening border crossing through lands that used to all be part of Mexico and indigenous long before that, Indigenous groups denied sovereignty and the right to practice their spiritual traditions (check out Native Appropriations: But Why Can't I Wear a Hipster Headdress?), The history of blackface and lynching in the U.S., I could go on and on...

That this season is a time for honoring the lives of our ancestors and their struggles, makes these costumes even more offensive. That this country has done little to remedy in any way the legacy of colonization, slavery, stolen land, and genocide that it was founded upon, how can anyone possibly dismiss these concerns, telling others to "lighten up" and "stop making a big deal out of nothing." These costumes are just one visual manifestation of the poison of racism (and classism, xenophobia, sexism, etc.), and the discussions around them can veer off into a debate on so-called free speech that lacks any sense of history and accountability, or they can help to raise difficult, painful, and potentially liberating conversations around power, privilege, representation, culture, history, and ancestry. (To read some dialogue, see Can Your Halloween Costume Be Racist, Even If You Aren’t?)

In response to Blackface, Geisha, Indian/Native American, Middle Easterners-as-terrorists, and other offensive costumes that perpetuate stereotypes and misinformation, a student group at Ohio University, Students Teaching About Racism in Society (S.T.A.R.S.) launched a We are a Culture, Not a Costume campaign:

When exploring difficult topics, it's often easy to get lost in words, where personal stories get drowned out or twisted by media misrepresentation and misinformation, and statistics and studies are used to justify and uphold unexamined and racist perspectives. These images from the campaign get straight to the heart of what is so offensive about racist costumes and the entitlement/defensiveness that is often part of the reaction to these issues being raised. In a culture where a disproportionate number of people of color are targeted by law enforcement/the school-to-prison pipeline/the prison industrial complex, where the mainstream media usually tokenizes people of color (the foreign Asian student, the Arab terrorist, the dangerous Black man, the submissive Asian woman, etc.) or excludes them altogether, and where white people/corporations profit off of the culture of communities of colors, racism is an explosive topic.

As a white person, I can only speak to other white folks on this matter. There's no right thing to say about all this and there's no way to fix it all overnight. What I've found the most helpful is to, first, listen. When someone's upset about something that you've said or done, especially if that person is part of an oppressed group (someone who is a person of color, has a disability, or is working-class, queer, transgender, etc.) and you're part of a privileged group (white, straight, cis-gender (non-transgender), (temporarily) able-bodied, middle/upper-class, etc.), just start by listening. It's common to become reactive and want to explain what you did. There's this cultural belief that if you didn't intend to cause harm that you're somehow automatically absolved from taking responsibility for the harm your words or actions may cause. This is not the case. Freedom of speech does not mean being able to do or say what you want without any kind of accountability. It's easy to get defensive and write someone off as being over-sensitive or angry.  However, in a culture that encourages and values the voices of certain people (the privileged groups listed above) while excluding and silencing others (the oppressed groups above), we've got some serious self-reflection and re-education to do.  And sometimes it can feel endless and overwhelming.  However, though we may not be commonly taught about it and it may sometimes be difficult to remember, there's a long legacy of resistance of people from all ethnicities/ancestries. For me, part of honoring my ancestors includes actively joining the many who are working for racial justice, a movement that stretches back through time and forward into the future.




Resources:

For those who are interested in listening, learning, and digging deeper, I suggest these two books that I've learned a lot from and am re-reading:  "Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum and  Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice by Paul Kivel.

Unsure if your Halloween costume idea might be offensive?  Check out this poster from Hampshire (College) Halloween:

Have you been called-out for wearing an offensive/racist costume?!  Here' s a great video by Chescaleigh on how to apologize. 

Day of The Dead Pilgrimage/Peregrinación del Día de Los Muertos ~Remembering the Dead, a project of Coalición de Derechos Humanos.  "Each year on the Day of the Dead we host a pilgrimage to commemorate the migrant lives lost in the desert. We want to ensure we honor the unidentified, to say the names of those who have been named, and, to not forget. We will walk with crosses, each of which represents the number of remains found in the Arizona desert and recorded by the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office."   2017 event info here.

Photo by Brenda Norrell

What’s the Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation? by Jarune Uwujaren

Dear White People/Queridos Gringos: You Want Our Culture But You Don’t Want Us – Stop Colonizing The Day Of The Dead by Aya de Leon

Native Appropriations: Examaning the Representations of Native Peoples Website (and Facebook page)

Open Letter to the PocaHotties and Indian Warriors this Halloween and Open Letter to the Pocahotties: The annotated version  by Adrienne K.

Halloween Costume Shopping: A sampling of the racism for sale by Adrienne K.

So Your Friend Dressed Up Like an Indian.  Now what? by Adrienne K.

Costume #FAILS video by Chescaleigh:

"Is Your Halloween Costume Racist?" Flowchart by College Humor. 
Click on this link to see a larger version.