Wild Awake Classes: Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany: exploring the relationship between plants and humans.
Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between plants and humans. Not only for food but also for medicine, craft, fire-lighting, natural navigation, soap making, wildlife tracking, basketry, rope making, dying, textiles, tanning, inks and paints, torch-making. Plants are at the centre of our lives; our classes explore how and why.
“Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit.
To recreate a home, the plants must also return.”.
- From ‘Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants’, by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Why Ethnobotany matters.
Ethnobotany is important not only for food but also for medicine, craft, fire-lighting, natural navigation, wildlife tracking, basketry, rope making, dying, textiles, tanning, inks and paints, torch-making. The possibilities offered to us from the plant and fungi kingdom are endless and the tales and customs associated are just as fascinating!
In these classes, we aim to inspire you with a feeling of wonder, gratitude, community, and connection and connect you to the plants, trees, fungi, seaweeds, and lichen of this land.
We explore where, when, and how they grow as well as safe, respectful, and regenerative ways to harvest. We want to empower you to confidently take this learning into your own life, to creatively transform and preserve your harvests for you, your family, or your community, and develop your own unique and authentic relationship with the wild plants that grow near you.
Plants as Medicines.
In the journey of learning about plants, we are nourished many times along the path. Not only when we take the plants as food and medicine, but in the wild encounters you may have as you harvest silently, or the community nourishment you may experience as we move across the landscape, singing and joking together.
There is healing at every step.
Uses of Plants.
Lucy’s particular focus lies with the practical ethnobotanical uses of plants, trees, fungi, and seaweeds in Ireland and further afield.
Lucy will guide you in exploring the practical uses of these plants to assist you in cultivating your own relationship with these beings.
Reciprocity.
Reciprocity and a good relationship with nature are at the heart of what we do. We aim to explore ways to contribute regeneratively to this land whilst carrying on the old ways of healing ourselves and our communities.
“Beautiful project with such beautiful energy of freshness and nature. Long live Wild Awake”.
– Nicolas Schweiger, Satisfied Customer
