Courses

I have offered a variety of ethnobotany related courses and workshops that include a range of activities such as: plant walks, lectures, salve making, tea blending, wild harvesting, learning from elders and knowledge holders, ecological restoration and youth engagement on the land. In my teaching I focus on our relationships with plants and how they connect us to our place and to culture. I believe it is important to collaborate with knowledge holders and experts in the community whenever possible to enrich the learning experience and to build capacity within communities whenever possible. Please read below for more information on the types of course I teach.  

University Courses

I teach courses at Quest University and the University of Victoria on the following topics: Ethnobotany, Ethnobiology, Squamish Culture and History, Traditional Systems of Land and Resource Management. These courses combine classroom lectures with field components and draw on local Indigenous knowledge holders to help teach the course content.

Community Based Teaching

One of my priorities is working within Indigenous Communities to facilitate the hands on learning about our cultural relationships with plants. I have worked with my home nation and many other Indigenous Communities to teach about traditional plant foods and medicines. Working in community offers a wonderful learning opportunity for everyone involved, including myself. As our Indigenous Communities strengthen and heal we are finding ways back to the land and ethnobotany is one of these ways.

Film Projects

Film is a powerful medium for facilitating learning about plants and telling stories of cultural knowledge renewal. I am currently working on a film project titled "The Yetwánaý Project". The film will tell the story of cultural knowledge renewal in connection to traditional plant use and how we utilize our ancestral relationship with plants to maintain good health. There is a specific focus on the prevention and management of Type 2 Diabetes through increased access to traditional foods, plant medicines and culturally related exercise. This film is a collaboration with Kingtide Films, the Squamish Nation Education Department and a Pathways to Health Equity for Indigenous Peoples CIHR