Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

More than 35 countries recently participated in a United Nations-sponsored effort to protect  traditional medicines from bio-piracy. At a three-day meeting in New Delhi they discussed a database that has been developed in India – the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) – that documents and protects centuries old knowledge about country’s traditional medicines and treatments. The idea is to try and help protect these traditional medicines, which should be the property of people and nations, from being patented by unscrupulous companies and individuals for profit.

Traditional medicine is, according to the World Health Organisation, "the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses."

Every natural environment, regardless of where it is, produces plants which can be used both as food and medicine, and all First Nations peoples retained knowledge and uses for them.

The plants used in traditional healing will vary from place to place, as is explained by Katsitsarishons (Suzanne Brant) is a Health Programs Coordinator at the First Nations Technical Institute, Tyendinaga 

Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada:

“Whatever [plant] you need is right around you. It’s conditioned to its environment, so it grows in certain soils and certain areas. It’s the same with us as human beings. We grow in a certain place, so we utilize those plants that are around us. And [plant use] shifts depending on where you’re at.”

Brant uses many local plants such as wild ginger, fiddleheads, nettles, cattails, yarrow, burdock root, yellowdock root, chicory root and flowers and lambsquarter for any number of traditional remedies. It’s interesting how, in many cases, plants seem to give clues to their uses, as she explains:

“Let’s say someone had trouble with their lungs … you could use mullein (Verbascum species). It’s an expectorant and antispasmodic. It works really well for colds and bronchitis. It is an interesting plant because the leaves look like a lung and this is what they work on.”

In Canada many of these traditional healing methods and medicines have been lost or forgotten, but thanks to people like Brant, who continue to teach and practice traditional healing and  explain the importance of preserving the plants and environments in which they grow, they are beginning to be used again by people across all cultures.

But traditional healing is about more than just a quick fix for a specific illness or medical problem. Brant explains the psychology behind traditional healing on the website the Healing Power of Plants (hosted by the Virtual Museum of Canada).“We (First Nations people) recognize that the natural environment provides us with health and that utilizing plants can provide us with health. Some of those plants are actually foods, so they become our medicine. Ours is more a preventative approach to wellness, rather than one in which you wait until you have a disease and then treat the symptoms. It’s about understanding that our health comes from the natural environment, whether it’s the plants, the water, the trees, the birds. They all provide us with health.

First Nations people also understand that everything is interconnected. So if I’m utilizing those plants, it’s my responsibility to ensure their health, to protect them, to protect their habitat and where they live. In doing that, there’s reciprocity. The benefits come back to me.”

In a traditional healing culture, a direct connection is drawn between healing and the cycle of life. Which is why traditional medicine is not overly extractive or environmentally degrading.

“When we’re talking about looking after oneself and taking ownership of our own wellness, then it’s our responsibility to protect, preserve, gather, and utilize things – like plants – in our natural environment. If we’re not using them, then they’re not of any value to us. If they’re not of any value to us, then we destroy them, and that’s what’s happening. So the spiritual aspect is very much connected to taking on that responsibility for using those things.

I know that not everybody is going to go out and gather medicine, but the awareness should be there about preserving and protecting and making sure that that environment is available to those people that do. Because each one of us has different responsibilities. Maybe somebody else is more responsible for the water or for the birds. Maybe a man is a hunter, so he’s responsible for protecting the environment of the animals he hunts.”

Using plants to try and maintain health and wellness is not as hard as many people think. There are lots of resources available on the Internet that can help to get you started, and many of the common medicinal plants can easily be grown, harvested and prepared in your own garden or in pots on your windowsill. But just remember when harvesting plants in the wild, that you should do so sustainably, as Brant explains:

“In using plants, there are certain protocols that are in place so you don't destroy them. For example, you treat plants like your family, like your relatives, so when you’re gathering you don't destroy the whole family or mistreat where they’re growing. You protect, you preserve and encourage the habitat.

A lot of our gathering practices are about certain times of the year. There’s a certain respect for how and where and when the plants grow, their seeds, and how we gather them so that we don't destroy them. Because we want to ensure their continuation. Because that, again, is our continuation. It’s that reciprocal process.”