Best Of The Wwest

In this episode, we hear from Leigh Joseph about collaborative work at a community level, observing people out on the land and learning their stories that connect them to their place. Leigh talks about how having a more Indigenous presence in ethnobotany is key to community collaboration, and how researching traditional Indigenous plant medicine can help Indigenous communities return to their cultural practices and build a foundation for healing and self-care at a community and cultural level. Leigh Joseph (Styawat) is an ethnobotanist, researcher and community activist. She is from the Squamish First Nation and she works to contribute to cultural knowledge renewal in connection to traditional plant foods and medicines. Her research takes a community-based approach and is influenced by her experience as an Indigenous woman reconnecting to her cultural roots. Wherever possible she draws on ancestral teachings that are connected to traditional plants and the land in her research. For a full transcription of th