PROGRAM INITIATIVE
Plant Care
Plant Care Supporting Indigenous People
We commit to support Indigenous people by cultivating, harvesting and preparing healing teas without any cost.
We also instruct and train participants in plant medicine, including all the steps of preparation.
Participant's from our youth program and the community get to participate in this process too, giving them a space to step into their traditional roles that protect their environment.
“Building a relationship with the land and medicinal plants is part of our cultural identity.”
- Tahila Mintz, OJI:SDA’, Founder & Executive Director
Why is the Plant Care Program Important?
The land provides healing and supports us. Our connection is to the land and that recognition is a part of our cultural identity. Having this knowledge empowers us. We can ignite that relationship with medicinal plants.
Colonial intervention severed many lines of traditional knowledge sharing that would otherwise have been passed down through the generations with oral storytelling and apprenticeship education.
Each recipient is a part of a circle and receives three weeks of herbal tea. The circles meet at different times during those three weeks to share with each other, reflections of their experiences and as a community.
In three weeks they have built a relationship with specific plants. They learn what the plants look like and where to encounter them growing naturally or how to plant them.
This provides agency for self care and increases the social fabric and connection to support people in their community.
Plant Care Project News
What Program Participants Are Saying
“It’s relaxing and calming for me. I like tea in the morning and at night. It made me sleep better and feel refreshed”
— Tami, Seneca
“The tea has been lovely to drink. It has been very calming to me. It will be a goal of mine to gather medicine for future use”
— Jade, Hawaiian
“I completely finished the three weeks. I made it a point daily-morning to drink the tea. My batch is easy to gather and I know it’s medicine that will play a contributing part to my health”
— Kawenniiostha, Mohawk
Get Involved
Our Plant Care program accepts volunteers from individuals and groups.
Volunteer with gardening, gathering, harvesting or packing the blends of tea
Lead a circle: Become a facilitator and receive plant teachings, teas and support for leading a circle in your community. You and all the members of the circle must be Indigenous. We do this in cohort rounds. You will get to know the other facilitators and learn and share together. Click here to find out more.
The program aims for the plants to be naturally accessible or cultivable in the location of the people drinking the tea. So different ecological environments could affect if a group can participate, at this time.
“Meeting to bundle herbs with the OJI:SDA’ family was deeply heart-warming. On a cold, December day, we were able to gather and prepare these beautiful medicines. Knowing that they have been created from such an intentional space, rich with laughter and stories, makes the medicine all the more powerful!”
“I was honored to be included as a volunteer of project OJI:SDA’ during the preliminary year. I was gifted time immersed in the forest surrounded by plant friends, being fully filled while fully giving, symbiosis in its essence.”
“The medicine making was a lovely opportunity to pause, to slow down, to remove myself from the hustle of the world and reconnect with life-giving forces, myself, and community.”