Decolonizing the garden
I spent years learning the Latin names of the plants in my garden before it struck me: Indigenous Peoples in Canada have names for and ongoing relationships with the flora and fauna here, that existed long before early European botanists started to give Latin names to native plant species.
Today we're talking with Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz, an Indigenous woman of Cree and Métis descent. She is a professor in the department of sociology at York University; the author of Our Knowledge is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings; and the editor of Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings. In this two-part series, Wendy Makoons talks about what we can learn from Anishinaabe botanical teachings and the importance of preserving Indigenous Knowledge in the garden.
To learn more from Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz, pick up a copy of her books at your nearest library or your local independent bookstore.
(Photo: Morgan Burke)
Transcript coming soon.