BIPOC Plant People Resource Guide
We've been wanting to compile a big resource for you to find and support BIPOC Plant People for so long.
As we dive in, even though we're mainly focused on the US, it becomes a deep rabbit hole. And why wouldn't it; there are so many amazing folks doing incredible things with plants that many of us have never even heard of before.
Our nonprofit work providing herbal and botanical education reparations includes this work. "Plant People" encompasses so much: botanists, herbalists, farmers, product makers, teachers, authors, organization leaders, and more. Several folks (as many of us in the US) have ancestry from multiple regions, so we chose one. Though locations are listed for some, many have virtual offerings available across the world.
Our hope is that we can try to heal some of the effects of oppression due to colonization, including the herbal and other plant knowledge that has been stolen and appropriated.
You can help this mission by:
Supporting these folks financially through purchases and donations.
Learning from and appropriately sharing the information they offer (always giving them credit and financial contributions if you are making money from sharing it).
Sharing links of BIPOC Plant People you know and love in the comments so we can add them.
Sharing this article and info.
Learning about and practicing Right Relationship and Reciprocity (see articles below).
This is a huge task, which is why we haven't done it until now. So please know that this will be an ongoing and ever-evolving project.
NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN PLANT PEOPLE
Bigwitch Indian Wisdom Initiative - Cherokee, NC - Traditional Food Pop-ups, Education, Herbal & Food Products
Linda Black Elk - Educator, Herbalist, Ethnobotanist, Food Sovereignty Activist, Land Back work with Makoce Ikikcupi Dakota Land Recovery organization
Cindi Quay - Cindi's Sacred Garden - Black Mountain, NC - Herbal Products, Herbal Education
Mon Iker - Clinical Herbalist - Virtual Herbal Consultations (specializing in Trauma-Informed Care, Chronic Illness, Toxic Exposure)
Lisa Bedner - Pipsissewa Herbs Greenhouse & Gardens- Bloomington Springs, TN - Education, Herbal Products, Books, Plants
Susan Anderson - Native Naturals - Lamont, FL - Farm, Articles, Books, Education
BLACK PLANT PEOPLE
Quinnie Cook - Quinnie's Kitchen - Marietta, GA - Herbalist, Vegan Chef, Education, Spa Events, Forest Bathing
Derek Haynes - The Chocolate Botanist - Botanical Education & Science
Leah Penniman - Soul Fire Farm - Petersburg, NY - Farming Education, Land Liberation, Activism, Farming While Black book
Lucretia Van Dyke - African American Herbalism book, readings, doula services
Cheryl's Herbs - St. Louis, MO - in-store and online herbal products
Alexis Nikole - The Black Forager - Foraging Education
Ayo Ngozi - The Creative Root - Herbalist
William Padilla-Brown - Mycosymbiotics -PA
Asia Dorsey - Herbalist, Educator - Bone, Bugs, & Botany - CO
Justin Robinson - Country Gentleman Cooks - Scientist, Ethnobotany - SC
ASIAN PLANT PEOPLE
Herb Folk Shop - Asian American Herbalism and Tea
Jiling Lin -Acupuncturist & Herbalist - Ventura, CA
Ava Chin - Eating Wildly Book
LATINX/HISPANIC PLANT PEOPLE
Brandon Ruiz - The Charolotte Herbal Accessibility Project - Charlotte, NC
Patrisia Gonzales - Traditional Indian Medicine: American Indian Wellness
Mimi Prunella Hernanadez - Herbalist - National Geographic Herbal - NC
The Botanical Bus: Botanical Mobile Herb Clinic - CA
Compton Health Bar - Compton, CA
Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz - Kitchen Curandera - Phoenix, CA - Earth Medicines Book
RESOURCES FOR LEARNING
Woke Without the Work - This virtual workshop is for non-BIPOC herbalists who are wanting to incorporate anti-racist work in their practices.
African American Herbalism: A Blog Series by Marc Williams, Ethnobiologist
The Gullah Geechee Herbal Gathering - an annual BIPOC conference on Johns Island, SC
Decolonizing Medicine: Ancestral Teachings Brought to the Forefront in Downtown Long Beach by Erin Foley
Decolonizing Alternative Medicine: The Herbalism and Ecology of the African Diaspora by Priscilla Ward
Decolonizing Alternative Medicine: Healing Communities with Indigenous Wisdom by Crystal Hoshaw
We are the Sum of Our Ancestors: Decolonizing Herbalism by Toi Scott
Water-Womb-Land Cosmologic: Protocols for Traditional Ecological Knowledge by Patrisia Gonzales
Working the Roots: Over 400 years of Traditional African American Healing by Michelle E. Lee
A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for Body and Spirit by Stephanie Rose Bird
Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit: John Lee—An African American Herbal Healer by Arvilla Payne-Jackson and John Lee
The Man Who Talks with the Flowers: The Intimate Life Story of Dr. George Washington Carver by Glen Clark
Soul Food Genius - "A 6-Week Virutal Course catering to the African Diaspora by centering our culinary, nutritional, and spiritual innovations" by Asia Dorsey & Justin Robinson
