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WENATCHEE — “Teach and be taught.”
Rex Buck III said he learned the phrase from his father. Buck travelled from Priest Rapids to Wenatchee last week after being invited to the Indian Hemp Symposium by board members of the Indigenous Roots and Reparations Foundation to share his tribal knowledge, spirituality and gathering process relating to the plant.
“So, just taking my place in the line of teachers and learners,” Buck said.
Indian hemp, or dogbane, is a strong, fibrous plant historically used by Native American tribes to make cordage to weave items like baskets and fish nets. One boy who attended the symposium was planning to make a rope to climb trees, IRRF founder Mary Big Bull-Lewis said.
“It’s multi-use and it’s just so important,” Big Bull-Lewis said about the plant. “We believe that the land is a living thing and that we have to show it respect because it provides so much to us and these aren’t just resources, these aren’t things to be monetized. It’s a way of life.”
Baskets, once made to trade, were used as a form of currency by Native tribes, and can now be seen at museums in Wenatchee, Cashmere and Leavenworth. For tribal members and descendants, they are also family heirlooms.
The three-day, inaugural Indian Hemp Symposium was held at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center from March 5 to March 7. It’s an extended version of the nonprofit’s annual Indian Hemp Field Trip, a one-day field trip with a similar theme, that gives more time to craft with the plant.
The first day of the symposium was a devoted youth day and the two following featured many different speakers and presentations at the museum. Each day drew around 80 participants and practitioners travelled from not only across Washington state, but also Idaho, Oregon, Montana and British Columbia.
While listening to presenters on stage, attendees inside the museum during the latter half of the week could be seen processing the hemp by rolling it with their fingers or braiding it. The crunching of the plant could be heard when it was stomped on to get it to break apart.
The event was so popular that registration filled up in 18 hours and accumulated a waitlist of 50 people. The symposium, like many events held by IRRF, aimed to keep cultural traditions and knowledge alive by sharing them with the next generation of tribal members and descendants.
“The teacher that taught me had said ‘Never be stingy with it. It’s not my knowledge to keep or to own,’” Buck said. “That it’s more value to be given away, especially towards new learners, towards other native people.”
Fifty kids from Nespelem, Leavenworth, Yakima and Wenatchee joined IRRF and thirty adults at Walla Walla Point Park to gather the plant during the youth day. They also learned about plant preservation and cultural burns from ecologist Monique Wynecoop, who put talking points together about what baskets materials would need to thrive to be the best quality and what they’d like to see from the plant.
“And then, if we were to go and do a burn, what would we want the plant to get from this burn?” she said. “What type of ways can we burn to make sure we’re not harming the plant to help cause these benefits? And then, how do we monitor to make sure we’re actually doing what we said we would do?”
Wynecoop brought her three children and her partner’s two children to the symposium. She said it offered help in relieving “the stress and anxiety in today’s times,” but it offered a connection to culture.
“Online is great, but unless you’re actually feeling the plant and seeing the plant and holding it in your hands and laughing with people and eating together, you’re kind of missing a huge part of the whole reason why we do the things we do,” Wynecoop said.
For Big Bull-Lewis, the symposium is an example of community that she sought for while growing up in Wenatchee. She founded IRRF six years ago and all funds received through grants and sponsorship offer access to community events at no cost to the participant or invited practitioners.
“I’ve had elders reach out that have never had access to this type of teaching, and it goes to show that there’s a lot of work and healing that we need to do, and that we have the youth here to learn and to continue these teachings,” she said. “And so if I can be a part of that and if I can provide this space and do that for them, then that’s what it’s about for me.”
Buck echoed Big Bull-Lewis, and pointed out that 20 years ago, there were no opportunities like the symposium around him to share the practice, and now that there are, he said they are important to host and attend.
“It brings awareness to stewardship, conservation,” Buck said. “It brings awareness towards traditional culture. It brings awareness towards things that are important to us as tribal people.”
”}]] WENATCHEE — “Teach and be taught.” Read More
