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Ways in which herbalists can continue to support the Black community.~By Coral Weinstock Donate Supplies HWB keeps an updated list of supplies and prepared medicines most needed by on-the-ground street medics and BIPOC community organizers. View that list, along with other information on donating supplies, here. Get Involved With Community Based Herbalism Community based herbalism focuses on providing local and sustainable botanical medicine to communities that have been systematically neglected or excluded by conventional health care, and on providing resources to folx on the frontl ines of revolutionary struggle. To learn more and get involved, check out: The Solidarity Apothecary, HWB People’s Clinics, and Herbalists Without Borders’ Guide To Community Herbalism. Join a Local Street Medic Team An herbalist can be an incredibly valuable addition to a street medic team. For more information on herbal care for protesters, check out this zine compiled by a team of herbalists, street medics, herbal first aid specialists and educators: Herbal First Aid For All Who Have Experienced Police Violence. Educate Yourself On Colonialism And Whitewashing Within Herbalist Spaces Many of the healing plants widely used in western herbalist practices today were first used by indigenous peoples across the globe and much of our collective botanical knowledge comes from the work of BIPOC. Unfortunately, especially as herbalism has become more popular within mainstream culture, that history has often been obscured or “white washed” and replaced with a false narrative that places white people at the center. [To learn more, check out this free ebook Queering Herbalism, written by Tori, a community organizer and medicine maker. ] Listen To and Rejoice In The Wisdom Of BIPOC Herbalists and Healers Find out who the BIPOC herbalists in your geographical region or specific field of interest are, or check out this list of some BIPOC practitioners, collectives, and herbal schools. Refrain From Purchasing Plants Held Sacred By Other Communities Appropriative use of White Sage (Salvia Apiana), a sacred ritual plant within many Native American tribes of North America, and Palo Santo (Bursera Graveolens / Bursera Sarmientoi), a holy tree in many South American indigenous communities, has led to overharvesting, and this has also limited their availability to those who hold them these plants sacred. Instead, embrace local biodiversity and your personal heritage to find your own rituals. Check out this article by Good Witch Kitchen for more ideas. Grow a Row (Or More) Of Healing Plants Earmarked for Donation The revolution didn’t start in a day and it won’t end in a day, either. Access to quality medical care has always been a political issue. Designate a portion of your garden to growing herbs for future donation. Stay Engaged Many of us, especially us white folx, aren’t used to thinking or talking about race this much. It can feel overwhelming, tiring or confusing. Take time to rest and nourish yourself. Don’t forget that allyship is not a goal to achieve; it’s a lifelong learning process.  Name: Coral Weinstock Gender Pronoun: they/ them/ theirs Part of the World: Midwest/ New England / Appalachia A little bit about me: Hi y'all! My name is Coral. I'm a small-scale, organic farmer by trade who has been increasingly drawn to herbalism the past couple of years. My first exposure to plant magic was as a little one, watching my mother, a midwife, working in her herbal garden in the backyard and making teas for her clients. Since then, I've become passionate about the interconnected nature of plant and animal (including human) vitality and survival. I'm also queer/genderfluid, and a movement artist with particular fondness of contact improv and aerial arts. I've spent the past 9 months on the road with my partner, WWOOFing and exploring different ecologically and creatively minded communities. I am so excited by the work of HWB and am honored to become a part of this network!   HWB is an all volunteer organization operating on a tiny budget. We are small, but we are mighty, and we get alot done. One of the things we have been sharing ongoing, is a constantly updated folder with resources, links, articles, and more. We have posted that to facebook, and we thought we should share it here as well. This herbal resource will be updated regularly, so while we pasted all the links in below, the main link to bookmark to access the latest up to date files is here: The text below Is not updated regularly - visit the master link for all of the latest links and resources.
Folders: Click in folder links for all PDFs and documents within the folders
Public Health Files/PDFS - Fact Sheets Public Health Sanitizer Recipes - Sanitizer Notes from Herbalists (PDF) - NotesfromHerbalists PublicHealthFlyersPosters Herbal Articles: Immune Support, etc<<This is a great resources for wellness support! HWB is sharing resources for knowledge sharing. Herbalists do not diagnose, treat, or cure, and herbal support is not intended to replace medical advice. These links do not belong to HWB, but we are sharing public health information and posts to our community. Please take care of yourselves. Wondering how you can help? Join as a member or make a donation and support the work of HWB. Thank you so much! https://www.hwbglobal.org/become-a-memberjoin-today.html  What happened to the Water Protectors? They are still fighting. This is a humanitarian story.~By Miriah Meiers The Dakota Access Pipeline has been in service for eighteen months now, beginning in June 2017. It was two years ago this past October that Native American Tribes tried to block its construction near their reservation lands in South Central North Dakota. This became a large protest that escalated into an almost war-like event between the Native Tribes and Morton County Authorities. Many arrests were made on October 22, 2016. The Dakota Pipeline was built to carry crude oil from Stanley, North Dakota (My hometown) to Pakota, Illinois, in order to increase its exportation to other lands. It crosses 50 counties in four states. It is owned by various companies and merges of these same companies. This became a mainstream story worldwide capturing the protesting of the construction of this pipeline by various interests and throughout social media. The protestors referred to themselves as Water Protectors and consisted of mostly indigenous Native Americans from various tribes, but specifically the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux, as it was threatening their land. As this protest stirred up more recognition, even celebrities were calling themselves Water Protectors, as were anyone else in support for the cause. The protesting started after the initial route was redirected from being 10 miles Northeast of Bismarck, ND to further south near the Standing Rock Reservation, regardless of the Tribes Council Members concerns about water sources and sacred land being disrupted by the oil pipeline. The pipeline runs under the Missouri River. This was also a very high tension time with a heated presidential election happening in congruence with this historical protest and was directly affected by it. After months of protests by thousands of indigenous and environmental activists, the Obama Administration denied a key permit for the DAPL. A few months later, Trump became president and reversed Obama’s decision and approved construction on the pipeline. This was one of Trump’s first actions as a President, to ensure an increase of domestic energy production. This distressed Native people in the United States and Canada, not only the destruction of land and water, but that the decisions were made discounting indigenous rights. Today, the pipeline transfers crude oil from the Bakken oil basin of North Dakota at a rate of over 500,000 barrels per day. The Dakota Access Pipeline is not the only pipeline in this area, hundreds if not more are underground, sometimes several per field. The state will most likely run out of pipeline capacity next year, and Energy Transfer recently announced its plans to expand its Dakota Access pipeline, in order to transport more oil.  Timothy Comminhay, a North Dakota native was at Standing Rock throughout its entirety, arriving in September of 2016 and remained there until escorted by the Mandan Police Department via handcuffs February 23, 2017. Tim is an old friend of mine and I’ve had a pleasure to stay in touch with him during this protest, and periodically ever since. He is a modern day human rights activist! Tim was living in Hawaii at the time the pipeline construction started and when the protest began, he headed home to North Dakota to join the fight. “When I first came to Standing Rock, I came here to fight a pipeline. I thought it was my duty. After a few months of living among so many amazing people unified, it became apparent that we were all here for something larger. We were here to fight for indigenous rights.” Many people saw footage of this protest through socialmedia and mainstream news sources. North Dakota is also my native state and everyone was heated about it, from many different angles. I chose to express Tim’s perspective because he was there and he was on the front lines of the indigenous side. On October 22, there were 126 arrests made after a maddening battle between the Morton County law enforcement and the indigenous people. It was not a pretty scene, but the water protectors stood their ground and many were put in handcuffs. I asked Tim what the craziest thing he saw during this protest. Morton County could not house all of the arrestees in their county jail so they crammed the overflow into DIY chain-link fence kennels inside their garage, after stripping them down to one layer of clothing. North Dakota gets COLD and concrete floors make it worse. Tim stayed in Mandan, waiting on court for misdemeanor charges. Most people were charged with the same two offences; Trespassing and Obstruction of a government function. After being released, he started working for Freshetcollective.org, dedicated to helping others fulfill their legal obligations and getting bonded out of custody. This organization focused on supporting everyone involved, helping to assure them that their sacrifices made a difference. After many months of playing in the Morton County legal system, many charges were dropped, usually the day before trail. Tim said he was disappointed. He waited a long time, patiently, and helping others to show up, only to be denied his chance to speak with charges dropped instantly pretrial, usually only one day before trail, for everyone. There are still a couple who were convicted of more serious charges that are serving time in State prison. Today, Tim is still fighting the fight. He is currently in Minnesota, challenging oil extraction companies. I do not blame him for not wanting to be in his home state. Tim has a great message, “We are running out of time! We need to first of all resist our government that wants nothing but to make a profit by exploiting all of our planets resources and our human rights to live here.” Extreme measures need to be taken, and I agree. Before we can save what is broken, it is time to stop that which is destroying our natural world. “We can’t be defeated!” said Tim, after asking him if he is going to continue this activist work, “If we are defeated, then we are going to lose everything! Even if the whole world realized tomorrow that it was time to work together, it would probably take three or four generations to repair what we’ve done to this world.” NDPL is only one of many pipelines that transport oil throughout the Midwest. There are constantly new permits being granted for more. This particular pipeline however, did draw attention to a current reality, which is based around profit from natural resources. These tribes stood up to a system that places profit above everything else, both our natural world and the people that live on it. That is a scary equation. These forces seem highly unlikely to stop their ways anytime soon. The North Dakota Native Tribes had the courage to stand up for their rights. We should all learn from them. We must not let greed put humanity at such high risk. What is all this profit for anyways? At what point does the future of our planet, its life and our species stop being bought and sold?  About Miriah: Adventure seeker, snowboarder, mountain climber, river rat, yogi, surfer wannabe, outdoor enthusiast. Writer, artist, activist, green medicine cratswoman, wondering explorer.
I became a member and volunteer of Herbalists Without Borders in 2012 as the Healing Arts Project Coordinator, while living in Denver, Colorado. In 2014, I began constructing the quarterly newsletters and have served as the editor since and love it. The early newsletters were constructed while I lived remotely from Northern California; off-the-grid, on the move, and usually without internet access! I currently reside in Telluride, Colorado. I’m striving to connect more with other Herbalists Without Borders globally on my travels and be an advocate writer on behalf of our non-profit, and freelance writer for other common causes. I truly support the humanitarian work of Herbalists Without Borders. I believe in humanity, and the moon and the stars. I’m passionate about protecting the Earth’s medicine and the rights to have access to it. As many of you may have noticed, we have had a changing of the guard here at Herbalists Without Borders. Gigi Stafne, long time Executive Director of HWB has stepped down from her position to focus on her thriving business and speaking engagements. Thank you Gigi for all of your years of dedication, hard work, and tireless enthusiasm for HWB. Naturopath • Master Herbalist • Writer & Educator • Entrepreneur Gigi Stafne, MH, ND, MI, has been a practitioner of natural and botanical medicine for 33 years with substantial clinical, health, environmental, social justice and entrepreneurial experience. She pioneered and created the first natural medicine clinic in West Central Wisconsin near Minneapolis, the Center for Healing Arts, bringing on a team of 12 skilled practitioners. She then founded an affiliated botanical medicine school which to date is one of the few in the Upper Midwest United States, Ontario, Canada and Lake Superior regions of North America that offers a professional Master of Herbalism Progam. For one decade, Gigi created and operated a United Plant Savers & Partners in Education project, the first UpS Botanical Sanctuary in Wisconsin, U.S. For her work there, she was awarded the 2007 North American Plant Conservation Award. She also launched a lake Superior regional chapter of Herbalists Without Borders, an international non-profit organization in 2006-2008. Gigi was appointed as the Executive Director of Herbalists Without Borders International, and served in that capacity for the past decade, growing that non-profit from 7 projects to 73 national and international chapters. In 2017 the American Herbalists Guild awarded Stafne the "National Community Service Award" for her work and volunteerism. Gigi continues teaching at numerous national and global venues via Green Wisdom School of Natural and Botanical Medicine including that of being a national-international trauma trainer. Prior to natural medicine, Gigi worked in the anti-violence field, from crisis intervention to public policy making. Her education began in Human Growth & Development and Family Social Science with the University of Wisconsin system. Furthermore, her education eventually lead to CAM degrees in Boulder Colorado which included a Master of Herbalism, Master of Iridology, Naturopathy & Natural Physician. Her continuing education and teaching is extensive, in women's health, environmental health, cross cultural medicine, ethnobotany, and beyond.
Gigi will continue in her role as Director and Lead Instructor of the Green Wisdom School of Natural and Botanical Medicine, as well as expanding her consulting business and founding the Fireweed Fund, a new micro-loan lending platform for socially innovating start-up small businesses and non-profits. www.greenwisdom.weebly.com Meet Denise Cusack, our new Executive Director Denise Cusack was appointed Executive Director of Herbalists Without Borders in September. Prior to becoming the ED, Denise worked closely with Gigi Stafne over the past year designing and producing the new website as well as media and marketing items to support HWB efforts. Denise has volunteered and organized within her community with many organizations over the years (and founded her own) including grassroots community non-profits, neighborhood organizations, national non-profits, community gardens, youth and nature projects, and holistic family groups. She is passionate about social and racial justice, grassroots activism, radical herbalism, access to affordable health care, accessing fresh food in food deserts, saving our medicinal plants, community supported agriculture, youth volunteerism, and healthy kids & families.
Denise has a BA from Columbia College in Arts Business Administration and has been a small business owner for over 2 decades. Denise has studied herbalism, aromatherapy, permaculture, and holistic nutrition with many wonderful and respected teachers over the past 25 years. Denise is currently owner of Wholly Rooted LLC, and is an herbalist and aromatherapist consulting with clients as well as handcrafting a line of herbal and aromatherapy products. Denise has a background in design and marketing from fortune 500 companies to home businesses and currently consults with a select group of small herbal/environmental related businesses to help them succeed and grow their brands in a competitive market via print and web design, marketing and media management and helps guide small businesses to learn and understand how to meet or exceed current GMP and labeling laws. She was Whole Foods and Herbal Health Editor for Tend Magazine for many years, and is a regular contributor to online and print magazines, writing about organic gardening, sustainable living, herbalism, aromatherapy, and whole foods. Denise loves to learn and do different things and is a writer, photographer, artist, designer, herbalist, aromatherapist, recipe developer, musician, and avid reader. Denise spent many years living all around the US, but now she enjoys spending time with her family, growing a ridiculous amount of culinary and medicinal herbs in her many gardens, distilling her own hydrosols, and concocting away in her herbal studio just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. WhollyRooted.com https://www.whollyrooted.com/blog https://www.instagram.com/WhollyRooted/ |
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