Transcribed by Meaghan Walker-Williams
(BEGIN TIMESTAMP 7:13) Trembling Aspen Tree. A long time ago my grandmother shared with me about her herbal medicines. And she told me. She said, “We’re going to face so much sickness now, because the world is changing. The food is changing. And she was worried that she was hoping that we could follow, in our old ancestor’s ways of healing people.
I chose Trembling Aspen because I saw a lot of people struggling with dementia. People with Parkinson’s. That was really not in our First Nations world (before contact) And I started thinking about my grandmother…”you’re gonna have to try to find that help”. So I went and I did a program, after my grandmother passed away…
Because she couldn’t talk English at all. Everything was hul’qumi’num. And when I went to residential school, before I went, I understood what she was talking about. But when I was there (residential school) for the year and a half I was there _____________ it went away.
I was just so forgetful of so many things.
But this Trembling Aspen, when I took the program, I thought about all the people that I see who are really struggling today. So I chose Trembling Aspen because it heals so many things in your body. The research on it, is endless.
It’s not from here. (It’s not an indigenous plant) – But we have some from around here. We have three big trees that are on the waterfront. What they are called “Dancing Tree”. But it’s family of the Trembling Aspen. I’m doing research to see if it’s the same medicine to use for people with Parkinson’s and dementia.
And I’m going to carry on researching, carrying on the herbal medicines, doing the best I can to help our people. Because the chemicals in the food today, is no good. The chlorine in our water is no good. Everything that we breathe… like the chemicals in a new vehicle? They all pollute. So we’re getting toxins in our body. So we can use natural herbal medicines to help our people. To heal whatever needs to be healed within ourselves.
That’s where I’m at right now, so…
Learning the Hul’qumi’num is more important than anything else right now, because all the old people on the other side, in the spirit world can hear us, and they will guide us…towards what we need to find.
(When you go out to gather the medicine, how do you prepare yourself?)
It’s days and days and days before I go, I have to sacrifice my eating, I fast before I go do any of the picking. I go for my mountain walks, my baths. I go in the forest and I pray for the medicine. I pray to my ancestors, the one’s who know about the medicine. It’s an ongoing prayer that has to happen… and you have to have _______________ (the word of that plant … it’s name) (END TIME STAMP 12:13)
