Your Medicine Basket
The medicines you’ll collect are used by many Indigenous people across Canada. These sacred plants all share one common characteristic - the versatility with which they are used and the teachings that accompany them.
Elder Harvey
Tobacco
Tobacco is one of the four sacred medicines, along with sage, cedar and sweetgrass. Tobacco is used in prayer as an offering to Creator for giving thanks and for healing. It is smoked in pipe ceremonies as a connection to the spirit world.
Berries
These berries have been used for its antiseptic properties, for healthy skin and digestive system. The berries thrive in sandy soil, exposed rock, and grow far into the northern landscape.
Dr. Ted Grant
Cedar
Cedar is used for spiritual protection and cleansing. Cedar bark is used for anti-inflammatory properties. The cedar tree has been referred to as the “tree of life” for all the different ways the tree and its parts can be used.
Diamond willow
The diamond willow is a tree that has adapted to its environment. It is used as medicine and wood pipe stems, sweat lodge frames, snares, nails, baskets, and snowshoe frames.
Auntie Elsie
Sage
Sage is a calming medicine, used to reduce negative energy and to purify spaces and sacred objects before ceremony. It can be put into medicine pouches with other sacred medicines, and has antioxidant properties.
Sweetgrass
Sweetgrass is harvested and braided together, with the three sections representing body, mind and spirit. Braids are stronger together than the strands on their own. Sweetgrass has a sweet aroma that is soothing to the senses in a smudge.
Desiree
Dandelion
All parts of the dandelion are used, from the roots to the leaves and flowers, as food and medicine in many forms. The bright yellow flowers are the first to grow in spring and continue to grow until the frost sets in.
Berries
The strawberry is known as heart medicine, and is referred to as the heart berry for its shape. The strawberry plant is often known as women’s medicine.Strawberry seeds represent the strength in community.