Saanich Ethnobotany
Culturally Important Plants of the Wsánec People
- Publisher
- Royal BC Museum
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2002
- Category
- Native American, General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780772665775
- Publish Date
- Nov 2002
- List Price
- $29.95
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Description
Nancy Turner and Richard Hebda present the results of many years of working with botanical experts from the Saanich Nation on southern Vancouver Island. Elders Violet Williams, Elsie Claxton, Christopher Paul and Dave Elliott pass on their knowledge of plants and their uses to future generations of Saanich and Coast Salish people, and to anyone interested in native plants.
Saanich Ethnobotany includes detailed information about the plants that were traditionally harvested to use in all aspects of Saanich life, such as for food and medicines, and to make tools, buildings and weapons. Each plant is listed by its common (English), scientific and Saanich names. Each listing contains a brief botanical description with a colour photograph, where to find the plant and how it was used traditionally by the Saanich people.
This important book celebrates the richness and tremendous value of locally based knowledge in a rapidly changing world.
About the authors
Nancy J. Turner is an ethnobotanist, and Distinguished Professor Emerita, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Canada. She has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 50 years, helping to document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and environments, including Indigenous foods, materials and traditional medicines. Her two-volume book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge (July, 2014; McGill-Queen’s University Press), integrates her long term research. She has authored or co-authored/co-edited 30 other books, including: Plants of Haida Gwaii; The Earth’s Blanket; “Keeping It Living” (with Doug Deur); Saanich Ethnobotany (with Richard Hebda), and Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, and over 150 book chapters and papers. Her latest edited book is Plants, People and Places: the Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights in Canada and Beyond (2020). She has received a number of awards for her work, including membership in Order of British Columbia (1999) and the Order of Canada (2009), honorary degrees from University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia and Vancouver Island and Simon Fraser Universities.
Nancy J. Turner's profile page
Richard J. Hebda is Curator of Botany and Earth History at the Royal BC Museum. He is also a professor of Biology and Earth Science at the University of Victoria. His studies include vegetation and climate history of British Columbia, ethnobotany of BC First Nations, climate change and its impacts, restoration of natural systems and processes, flora of alpine ecosystems and
botany of grasses.
Other titles by
Foraging as a Way of Life
A Year-Round Field Guide to Wild Plants
Luschiim’s Plants
Traditional Indigenous Foods, Materials and Medicines
Plants of Haida Gwaii
Third Edition
Deep and Sheltered Waters
The History of Tod Inlet
Plants, People, and Places
The Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights in Canada and Beyond
Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge
Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America
Food Plants of Interior First Peoples
The Earth's Blanket
Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living
Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples
Keeping It Living
Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on Northwest Coast of North America
