STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Welcomed with open arms
We were bringing women up to the Laurentians to do sweat lodges, talking circles, and sharing circles with Sedalia Fazio, the elder for the Native Women's Shelter. She's become my elder too, for 18 years. That was my introduction to my culture, and where I started working and taking part in the community.
Bees are my medicine
Beekeeping came to me about eight years ago. I was in a really tough place emotionally and mentally, so I decided to take three months off work. I went to a lodge in the Munsee Delaware Nation for three weeks, with 18 other women.
Passing Knowledge Along
The first time I got introduced to medicine, I was a kid. I used to go pick wildflowers for my mother. I remember picking violets. They were so pretty. I picked a whole bunch of them.
Ground ivy
This was the first time I felt a true connection with plant medicine. The plant heard what I was thinking and was ready to help. It made the cultural teachings more real: 'All our relations.'
Echinacea, Boneset & Yarrow
Echinacea has pink flowers and looks beautiful in your garden. You can make tea with the flowers and leaves for your immune system. However, it is the roots that are most powerful as an immune booster.
Going with Tradition
There’s a festival called the medicine ceremony. You take the seeds that you’re going to plant and you bring them to the Longhouse. You pass around the medicine and you drink it through your body.
A heavy job
I used to do readings for people. When people have problems, like if they’re scared that somebody is sick in their family, they would come to see me.
Working on bones
My grandmother used to work on bones. Not broken ones because broken ones are very hard to heal but she would work on their muscles.
Motherwort
Motherwort is very bitter. When a plant is bitter, it helps the blood, liver, endocrine system, and female reproductive system.
Women’s health
I like to mix my flowers, my vegetables, and my medicines together in the garden. I grow motherwort, which is a bitter herb.
Dawned on me
I always remember how it started. I was working, it was very shady during those summer days. And all of a sudden, it dawned on me, what I wanna be.
