More info:
Allina Health has teamed up w/a local organization to create an online guide for Indigenous & Native Youth struggling with mental health challenges.
#Native & #Indigenous communities use #smudging -the burning of one or more #SacredMedicines like tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass – to cleanse their mind, body & soul.

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/online-mental-health-guide-created-with-indigenous-youth-in-mind

#NativeHealing #NativeTherapy #decolonization #HelpingNativeYouths #CulturallyAppropriate #NativeReconnection

Want to purify your house? Maybe don't use white sage (unless it's already part of your cultural tradition/religious practice.) https://wapo.st/3W7RSxC #smudging

Native folks in the US have requested that non-native people stop using white sage for smudging; it is not being sustainably harvested and is at risk.

Also there’s a cultural appropriation issue – try practices from other cultures instead.

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Here’s one article on the issue:

Sephora’s “Starter Witch Kit” and Spiritual Theft | Native Appropriations

https://nativeappropriations.com/2018/09/sephoras-starter-witch-kit-and-spiritual-theft.html

#SaveWhiteSage
#CulturalAppropriation
#Smudging

Old growth Tan Oak trees are a rarity in northern California. The first white settlers cut them all down for the tan bark industry, the bark was used for tanning leather. Today most people around here disrespect tan oak, and call them trash trees. They've only ever seen young ones. Tan oak keep trying, they'd like to see some of their people grow old, but people cut them down while they are teenagers.
Tan oak acorns were the preferred, prized acorn of local tribes.
Awhile back phytopthera, (also known as sudden oak death) began killing tan oaks in CA, like a fast moving plague. It spread on my neighbors land, and I was afraid it would cross the road and wipe out my ridge of old growth tan oak. I consulted Dennis Martinez ( restoration forester, and fire ecologist extrordinaire) who suggested as an experiment, I might want to try smudging the trees with smoke. One study indicated that smoke weakens and kills plant pathogens within minutes, and has beneficial effects. (Parmeter and Uhrenholdt 1974)
Dennis suggested smudging in the wet season when phytopthera sets spores.
I did a light understory thinning, and used the green material to make small very smokey burn piles. Tan oak are rather sensitive, they don't like fire too near, so i kept flames well away from trunks and branches. When the piles turned to coals , I raked them around individual trees mimicking a low intensity burn. (Back then almost no one was doing prescribed burns.)
20 yrs later my ridge of old growth tan oak still stands. (Unfortunately most of my neighbors tan oak died.)
Sudden oak death, slowed down, but perhaps because of the recent drought we're seeing it pop up again. I think I may do some tree smudging this winter.
#TanOak
#OldGrowth
#phytopthera
#SuddenOakDeath
#acorns
#FireEcology
#smudging

*winces at the mention of "smudging" in this non-Native ritual*

For those unaware: https://www.rubyofroses.com/post/open-v-closed-practices

Just call it smoke cleansing! Garden sage (which is easy to grow at home) or rosemary are both herbs that smell good when burned.

#witchcraft #druid #druidry #druidism #ritual #smudging #CulturalAppropriation