Also view: About the Name
Npisun (Medicine) in the Wabanaki Forest
YouTube Video (Community Forests International), Sep 23, 2022.
Join Cecelia Brooks from St. Mary’s First Nation, New Brunswick, and her son Anthony Bardwell, as they share their story of finding medicine from and on the land. Watch their traditional medicine harvest, listen to the challenge of accessing lands, and find hope from one settler landowner who passes on the knowledge from his own ancestors. Directed by: Desmond Simon This video was produced through the Common Ground Project, a partnership between Community Forests International, Ulnooweg Development Group, and the Family Forest Network of Nova Scotia.”
Comment: Interesting that the original deed for one piece of land, 8 generations ago, honored the treaties of the time: “There was a time when the treaties were honoured…The Treaty was that we live here together on the land, and take car of our Mother, Earth'”
The Muskwi Canoe
YouTube Video, Community Forests International, July 12, 2022
The changing climate affects both the forests and traditions that have relied on the forests for millennia. In this short film, Mi’kmaw Elder Todd G. Labrador and his daughter Melissa Labrador explain the increasing importance of sharing traditional ecological skills and knowledge — and take us on a journey to see the traditional harvest and making of muskwi products.
“Muskwi” is the birch tree. Harvesting birchbark… it’s become more difficult because of changes in the way the bark peels – it is very dry when it should be wet – and there is much more disease x Todd G. Labrador; “Something is not right”
The Borer and the Basket
YouTube Video, Community Forests International, June 20, 2022
The ash trees of the Wabanaki Forest bear spiritual, ceremonial, and economic importance to Indigenous people in the area, but the emerald ash borer ― an invasive beetle species ― is currently decimating these trees and threatening a way of life. This film weaves personal stories with the latest research, following the basket makers and experts who are trying to preserve the forest before it’s too late.