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Plants, People, and Places

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A powerful case for the essential role of plants and environments in recognizing Indigenous Peoples' land rights around the world.
  • 20 August 2020
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For millennia, plants and their habitats have been fundamental to the lives of Indigenous Peoples - as sources of food and nutrition, medicines, and technological materials - and central to ceremonial traditions, spiritual beliefs, narratives, and language. While the First Peoples of Canada and other parts of the world have developed deep cultural understandings of plants and their environments, this knowledge is often underrecognized in debates about land rights and title, reconciliation, treaty negotiations, and traditional territories.

Plants, People, and Places argues that the time is long past due to recognize and accommodate Indigenous Peoples' relationships with plants and their ecosystems. Essays in this volume, by leading voices in philosophy, Indigenous law, and environmental sustainability, consider the critical importance of botanical and ecological knowledge to land rights and related legal and government policy, planning, and decision making in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and New Zealand. Analyzing specific cases in which Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to the environment have been denied or restricted, this collection promotes future prosperity through more effective and just recognition of the historical use of and care for plants in Indigenous cultures.

A timely book featuring Indigenous perspectives on reconciliation, environmental sustainability, and pathways toward ethnoecological restoration, Plants, People, and Places reveals how much there is to learn from the history of human relationships with nature.

Contributors include Arthur Adolph (St'at'imc First Nation), Chelsey Geralda Armstrong (Smithsonian Institution), Jeannette Armstrong (Sylix First Nation; UBC Okanagan), E. Richard Atleo (Ahousaht First Nation; UVic), Marlene Atleo (Ahousaht First Nation; U Manitoba), Janelle Baker (Athabasca U), Kelly Bannister (UVic), Michael Bendle (Woodward & Co. Lawyers, Victoria), Ingele Bergman (Sweden), Linda Black Elk (Catawba Nation, USA), Malin Brännström (Sweden), Véronique Bussières (Concordia U), Jeff Corntassel (Cherokee Nation; UVic), Alain Cuerrier (U Montréal; Montreal Botanical Garden), Deborah Curran (UVic), Douglas Deur (Portland State U, USA), Spencer Greening (Gitga'ata First Nation; P.E. Trudeau Scholar; SFU), Marianne Ignace (Secwepemc First Nation; SFU), Chief Ronald Ignace (Secwepemc First Nation; SFU), Justine James (Quinault Nation, USA), Leigh Joseph (Squamish First Nation; UVic), Dana Lepofsky (SFU), John S. Lutz (UVic), Darcy Mathews (UVic), Letitia M. McCune (BotanyDoc LLC, Tucson), Aaron Mills (Couchiching First Nation [Anishinaabe], Treaty #3 Territory, and North Bay, Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory; P.E. Trudeau Scholar; McGill), Monica Montgomery (U Hawaii), Monica Mulrennan (Concordia U), Val Napoleon (Saulteau First Nation - Treaty 8; House of Luuxhon, Ganada, Gitanyow; UVic), Lars Östlund (Sweden), Kim Recalma-Clutesi (Qualicum First Nation), David Robbins (Woodward & Co. Lawyers, Victoria), Jacinta Ruru (Maori; New Zealand), Stuart Rush (BC Law Society), Camilla Sandström (Sweden), Pamela Spalding (UVic), John Ralston Saul, CC, OOnt (Toronto), James Tully, FRSC (UVic), Mehana Vaughan (U Hawaii), and William White (Snuneymuxw First Nation).

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Price: $55.00
Pages: 554
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Imprint: McGill-Queen's University Press
Series: McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies
Publication Date: 20 August 2020
Trim Size: 9.25 X 6.25 in
ISBN: 9780228001836
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Native American Studies
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“I wholeheartedly recommend this book to ethnobotanists, communities facing challenges related to sovereignty, policymakers, herbalists, and anyone interested in traditional ecological knowledge, history, plants, and Indigenous rights. The volume has something for everyone: unusually rich descriptions of plant-people relationships and knowledge, detailed histories of settlement and resistance, and inspiration for those seeking to reclaim their land and heritage.” Herbalgram: The Journal of the American Botanical Council

"As a whole, Plants, People, and Places is a text that reminds us to nurture our curiosity and to engage with a diversity of sources. Its contributors remind us that land is a teacher, that plants communicate, and that human beings can find knowledge and wellness in plant-people relationships. It is a book that ought to be read broadly. Anyone researching native plant species, Indigenous foodways, or settler-Indigenous relations in what is now known as North America can benefit from the teachings bound in this collection." NiCHE

"The influence of distinguished ethnobotanist Turner is beautifully apparent throughout the collection. Plants, People, and Places confidently and compellingly asserts the value of ethnobotany and ethnoecology to the ongoing legal challenges of Indigenous peoples, and to the broader resurgence of Indigenous cultures around the world." Montreal Review of Books

"Plants, People, and Places [provides] a deep and comprehensive understanding of the vital role of Indigenous knowledge in the context of current environmental and legal frameworks. [It] makes a significant contribution to the restoration of Indigenous rights, sovereignty over land, and environmental sustainability [and] serves as both an academic resource and a call to action, advocating for the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in shaping a more just and sustainable future for all." Plains Anthropologist
Nancy J. Turner is distinguished professor emeritus and past Hakai Professor in Ethnoecology in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellow, and author of Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America.