Knowledge Keepers: Medicine Walk

Museum of Anthropology
Museum of Anthropology
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Published 2020-08-25
Take a walk with T’uy’tanat-Cease Wyss in Harmony Garden, located in Skwxwú7mes Úxwumixw. Learn about the oldest plants on earth; the pollinators necessary for sustaining our food resources and thus human life; and the Indigenous medicines that grow on Coast Salish lands.

Cease Wyss is part of a long line of cultural Knowledge Keepers who have passed down their wisdom of Indigenous medicines from generation to generation, since time immemorial. Much of this knowledge is now in danger of being lost due to the intergenerational impacts of colonization. She encourages people from all cultural backgrounds to understand the importance of learning about Indigenous plants. Cease often shares this knowledge through site-specific, culturally focused teachings using traditional storytelling methods as her style of educating.

T’uy’tanat-Cease Wyss has been a creative cultural influencer in Vancouver for 25 years. Her Skwxwú7mesh, Sto:Lo, Metis, Hawaiian, and Swiss heritage strengthen her art practise and cultural work. She uses knowledge of “ethno-botany” in all of her plant-related work, including Indigenous community gardens, ReciprociTea gatherings, Indigenous plant walks, and wetlands restoration projects.

Learn more about Knowledge Keepers: A MOA Original Documentary Series: moa.ubc.ca/2020/07/knowledge-keepers-a-moa-origina…

Knowledge Keepers is a MOA original video series which documents traditional Indigenous knowledge keepers. See the land currently known as British Columbia in ways you’ve never seen it before as these individuals give us an inside look at the world we live in—through the eyes of a person who has thousands of years of oral history in their ears, and thousands of years of tradition in their blood. In a world of great unrest from environmental struggles, the voices of Indigenous knowledge keepers are essential to document for future generations.

Credits:

Cease Wyss
Coast Salish Knowledge Keeper

Marie Wustner
Director and Producer

Rea Saxena
Editor

Ben Cox
Director of Photography
All Comments (5)
  • @laurielava
    Yôotva for the info on buttercups. I battle them in my garden all the time and needed a reason to love and appreciate them.
  • @patriciaforrest7842
    How can we learn more or have more connection with these knowledge keepers. I work for the school system and at this time our schools are wanting to include indigenous plants in their school gardens or to grow traditional gardens.