CORNWALL, Ontario – Discover how traditional knowledge links human beings to the natural world at the Science & Nature on Tap series at Schnitzels this Wednesday.
Guest speaker Chris Craig, a senior forestry technician with South Nation Conservation, is Annishnabe – a member of the Algonquin’s of Pikwakanagan (formerly known as Golden Lake).
According to the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, Craig has compiled one of the most comprehensive inventories of native medicinal plants in eastern Ontario.
The ambitious project was undertaken in response to concerns voiced by the Mohawks of Akwesasne over a perceived decrease in the potency exhibited in their traditional medicines. Mohawks suspected that historical industrial pollution along the St. Lawrence River had weakened the effectiveness of medicinal plants in their area. So the community worked with South Nation Conservation and other community partners to prepare a Naturalized Knowledge Systems Ethnobotany Inventory.
Craig played a key role in this study and is one of the few people to know about the healing properties of these plants and where they are located.
“In the language of the Annishnabe, the word ‘Ginawaydanaga’ means that we are one,” said Craig. “Indigenous science that explores the healing property of plants is based upon a First Nations understanding that we are all connected to the natural world in which we live.”
This free session, hosted by the St. Lawrence Institute of Environmental Sciences, is held at Schnitzels European Flavours (158 Pitt Street), starting tonight at 7 p.m.
For more information or to reserve a seat please call (613) 936-6620 or e-mail kcooper@riverinstitute.ca or visit the River Institute website at www.riverinstitute.ca.
