Land Acknowledgement

This Open Educational Resource was created in partnership across two places – the Secwépemc Nation and the St’át’imc Nation.

I acknowledge the Cayoose Creek Band of Sekw’el’was, one of the eleven communities of the St’át’imc Nation, located near Lillooet, British Columbia. The teachings, stories, and plant knowledge shared within this book come from this land and the Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and community members who continue to protect and nurture it.

I acknowledge that Thompson Rivers University is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, within Secwépemc’ulucw, the lands of the Secwépemc people.

I also recognize that traditional plant knowledge is not static, nor is it merely “information.” It is living knowledge, held within the land itself and carried through relationships between people and plants, between community and territory, and between memory and renewal. Every plant described in this collection carries its own spirit and history; it belongs to the land and to the people who have tended it.

In creating this OER, I commit to the principles of respect, reciprocity, responsibility, and relevance, ensuring that the knowledge shared here remains under the stewardship of the Cayoose Creek Band of Sekw’el’was. We uphold the OCAP® and CARE principles, recognizing community ownership and authority over cultural knowledge, and affirming that this resource is shared with permission, for the collective benefit of learners, educators, and communities.

Finally, I extend my gratitude to the land itself  – to the sagebrush plains, the berry bushes, the roots, the rivers, and the towering trees. I hope that this work serves as a reminder that education and healing begin not in books or laboratories alone, but in our relationships with each other, with the earth, and with the living systems that sustain us all.