About this Event
Intention
This offering intends to sow the seeds and tend to environmentally/ culturally important plants that help support community resilience and well-being in the Sikoohkotóki bioregion.
Your participation can help Sweetgras thrive. Together, we can learn how to connect, to grow, harvest, process, preserve and share native beauties like Sipatsimo! Smell it once and you will not want to let it go.
By joining this collective you can help create healthy soils, retain water, host abundant wildlife, and so much more. The work of other global herb communities has shown the many nurturing effects collective growing of threatened native plants can have on learning and sustaining of:
- respectful regard for the land, animals and plant people
- biodiversity-minded land management practices in cities and rural areas
- free exchange and continuation of ancient herbal knowledge and practices
- proactive approaches to individual as well as community health and well-being
Upon Registration you will receive invitations to attend 3 in-person meetings:
- Visit Kainai reserve and Spring Hills on May 24 to learn about Blackfoot stories, land and ecology
- Lethbridge garden visits in the evening on July 5 to see Sweetgras grow and bloom
- Sweetgras braiding/ medicine-making workshop on September 14 - 10 am-12pm
You will also
- receive a Sweetgras plug,
- receive instructions for planting and tending,
- taste and try medicine samples and,
- get recipes for medicinal formulations,
- learn some relevant Blackfoot words.
To enact principles of gratitude and respect, you will share your experience and some of your harvest with local communities.
Note that Blackfoot participants attend free of charge,
just reach out to host ([email protected])
Your tickets will enable the host (Jördis Weilandt) to
- organise your land and garden visits,
- set up interactions with environmentally-minded people institutions,
- prepare medicinal preparations for you to try,
- create educational materials to guide you in the process of growing and processing of Sweetgras,
- make donations to social justice players in the region and pay honorariums to Blackfoot knowledge keepers
Friday, May 24, 2024 from 4 PM to 7 PM VISIT TO KAINAI RESERVE AND SPRING HILLS
This visit to the Blackfoot lands will mark the launch of our sweet grass grow collective. It will present a unique opportunity to learn more about ancient stories and ecological conditions of Sweetgras in its native environment. Our first stop will be Naapi's Garden, a Blackfoot land-rematriation project, where we can gain valuable insights from the esteemed founder, Blackfoot artist and environmental activist, Api'soomaahka. This will prepare us for the second stop in Spring Hill's, where we will ceremonially plant the first plug from our collective.
July 5, 2024 from 6-8pm VISIT LETHBRIDGE GARDENS
We will meet in locations where the Grow Collective plugs have been planted to see the plants grow and thrive.
Saturday September 14, 2024 from 10-12 pm HANDS-ON BRAIDING/ MEDICINE-MAKING
(place to be determined)
In a hands-on workshop, we will make medicinal formulations with Sweetgras that can be shared out with the wider Lethbridge community (including the unhoused population).
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lethbridge, Canada
CAD 50.00
