Get Into Service: A Working Tour of Evergreen's Ethnobotanical Gardens

Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Room: TBA

Session Description:

Learning in action at the Longhouse Ethnobotanical Garden!

Join the work party and find out what's going on at Evergreen's Ethnobotanical Garden. Leading this experience are Garden Coordinator Billie Burlock '13 and Laurel Smith '11, the Community Partnership Catalyst for the Center for Community Based Learning and Action (CCBLA) - AmeriCorps VISTA. The Longhouse Ethnobotanical Garden was initially developed in 1995 by students of adjunct faculty member Marja Eloheimo in consultation with Colleen (Ray) Jollie, the first Longhouse Director. In order to honor, preserve and better understand native plants of the Pacific Northwest, the garden features habitat areas (including a riparian zone and camas prairie) that reflect the conditions in which the plants would naturally grow. At least 80% of the plants have been salvaged from development sites. Name signs help visitors learn to recognize and identify the plants. Almost 20 years since its inception, the Longhouse Ethnobotonical Garden continues to acknowledge the close traditional relationships between Native People and native plants—providing opportunities for interdisciplinary, inter-community and intercultural exchange and collaboration. Join us in defining paths with wood chips, weeding, and maintaining the garden. We'll start off with a tour showing you the different sections of the garden and the medicinal plants growing therein. Also hear about Evergreen’s Center for Community Based Learning and Action.

Facilitator Biography:

Billie Burlock '13: Billie is currently a senior at The Evergreen State College focusing in ethnobotany. She works as an Ethnobotanical Garden Aide at The Longhouse Education and Cultural Center.

Laurel Collier Smith '11: Laurel graduated from Evergreen with a BA focused in psychology and social change strategy. She works with the CCBLA as the Community Partnership Catalyst/Americorps Vista program. She has also worked in Olympia organizing projects with Books to Prisoners, Bridges Not Walls, ILWU Local 5 (as an Evergreen food service worker), Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights, and Pasajer@s Playback Theater. Laurel is also a contributing author and illustrator of Dr. Leticia Nieto's book, Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment: A Developmental Strategy to Liberate Everyone.

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