Intervale Series: Story Telling & Indigenous Smoke Medicine Bundle Making

*this class has sold out!*

Smoke medicine, known as “smudging” by Native Americans or “saining” by indigenous folks of the Celtic Isles, is an ancient and modern practice for tending the spiritual well-being of people and spaces as well as clearing the air of pathogens and stagnant energy. Join Community Herbalists Katherine Elmer (Celtic/Nordic descent) and Arthur Black Hawk for an introduction to medicinal plants and folklore from two indigenous lineages. The cultural ethics and sustainable harvesting/purchasing of smoke medicine plants will be discussed. Activities include an introduction to common medicinal plants used for smoke medicine, ancestral story-telling, and making your own smoke medicine bundles using abundant, sacred local plants such as sweetgrass, cedar and mugwort.

Katherine Elmer (she/her) revels in the opportunity to connect with clients and learners around a shared love of place, nature, and social justice through whole foods nutrition and herbal medicine. She is a clinically-trained community herbalist and lecturer on Herbal Medicine, Integrative Health and Food Systems topics at the University of Vermont and Northern Vermont University. She is co-founder of the Railyard Apothecary (railyardapothecary.com) and an educational nonprofit called Spoonful Herbals (spoonfulherbals.org).

Class will be held outdoors at the Intervale Center.