ABOUT

In 2008 I moved to Nanaimo, the the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw people here on Vancouver Island, with my husband and our young children from the South of England, where I was born in a town called Reading.

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Before the town was named Reading by a Saxon tribe called Redingas, it was a part of the Atrebates tribal lands prior to the Roman invasion.

 

I always enjoying learning about the history of England, which is played out visually in the landscape with its ancient ruins, my parents took us often to heritage sites, which helped connect me to the land I grew up on and to the past generations that had been there. We also went to many old manor homes to walk through the gardens. England is known for its 'country gardens' and where I grew up there were a lot of them.

 

Both my parents and grandparent had beautiful gardens, where I remember playing amongst the plants and climbing trees. The cycles of nature through the garden brought a sense of rhythm to the year and it was an experience I wanted to recreate for my own children, so they too could feel connected to plants and the earth.

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My children were what activated my journey onto the herbalism path, I put them in an forest school, and the school also ran an apprentice program for adults, which I became a part of and it was through this experience that I was first introduced to tree medicine. 

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I had never set out to be a herbalist, I didn’t even know it was a career. But I found an amazing world full of plant allies, ready to support us in a variety of ways and the majority of people didn't even know about them, it felt like a secret, hidden and found only by those curious enough to investigate, or lucky enough to have had the knowledge passed down to them.

 

When I learned of medicinal trees and plants I remember feeling a mixture of awe and surprise, followed quickly by confusion. Why had nobody ever told me about this? Why did the knowledge not get passed on to me and there was so much to learn, where did I begin?

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I decided to begin in my own garden, researching the plants I had there and finding that the majority of them held medicinal properties.

 

Each time I learned about a new medicinal plant I wanted to bring it in to my garden, so I could provide a home for it and work with it in person. It was through that process that I found some medicinal plants were being so heavily harvested that they were considered rare and endangered. That led me to finding ways of honorably harvesting plants, so that they could continue to grow and thrive in their habitats. But I wanted to do more than that, I wanted to be able to lift up and elevate the plant allies, so they could be known and honoured for the wisdom they contained and for the support they generously offer to us.

 

So I went on to do multiple courses, found great teachers and connected with like minded people. I completed the Vitalist Herbal Practitioner course through Sajah Popham's School of Evolutionary Herbalism. Then I came across a course being offered on 'indigenous land protocols for medicinal harvesting' and that ended up taking me full circle, back to my own ancestral roots. It wasn't just about how to ethically harvest plants, but it also encouraged students to discover which plants would have grown on the land their ancestors had come from, how they would have honoured the earth and all living species on it.

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I knew my Anglo-Saxon roots, but this course made me look back further, into the Celtic tribal lands of England, before the Romans came. Archaeological discoveries have recorded which plants were sacred to the Celts and how they were worked with in celebrations.

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It is believed that the Celtic language was inspired by the trees, with the Celtic alphabet, or Ogham as it is called. I felt connected again to the land and to the ancestors, even though I was in a different country. I shared this with one of my mentors and they told me that it was our human birth right, to know the plants and the reciprocal relationship we hold with them - how we can work with them to support our own health and how we are responsible for honoring and protecting them.

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This strengthened my resolve to retain the knowledge of plant medicine for future generations and I started to run medicinal plant workshops for children and adults. I created this business so everyone could access the knowledge and healing action of plants for personal, family and community wellness, to spread healing in the world and to restore the ancient and evolutionary relationship between the plant world and humans.

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Throughout human history plants have weaved themselves into our holidays and celebrations, from birth to death they show up for us. Even through our breath, we take in the air plants have released and our breath out is taken up by them, an ancient and ongoing relationship of support for each other, the plants are there for us and we need to be there for them to elevate and protect them.

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By being stewards of the land and our gardens, we can reciprocate the support plants provide us with, by looking after habitats and the endangered species.

 

So I encourage you next time your in nature, to be more curious about the plants that might catch your eye, or if you already have a favourite plant to go find out more about it, what is its Latin name and history? Does it have medicinal properties, you may be surprised at the answer and accidently discover your own path to connecting with your natural birth right.

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Ancient ancestors from every culture were intimately connected to the water, land and sky, recognizing plants as healers and teachers. Honorably harvesting plant medicine connects us directly to nature and to our ancestors who also gathered plants to support themselves and their families. ​For more information on how to honorably harvest click on the below 'READ MORE' button.