A modern story of traditional Indigenous knowledge that follows a young
boy and his Auntie as they gather and braid sweetgrass, one of the
four sacred medicines.
It's early July, and for Matthew and his Auntie that means one thing:
time to go sweetgrass picking. This year, Matthew's younger cousin
Warren is coming along, and it will be his first time visiting the
shoreline where the sweetgrass grows.
With Auntie's traditional Mi'kmaw knowledge and Matthew's gentle
guidance, Warren learns about the many uses for sweetgrass--as
traditional medicine, a sacred offering, a smudging ingredient--and the
importance of not picking more than he needs. Once the trio is back at
Auntie's house, she shows the boys how to clean and braid the grass.
From the duo behind the bestsellers The Gathering and The Sharing
Circle, this heartfelt story about the gifts we receive from Mother
Earth and how to gather them respectfully offers thoughtful insight into
a treasured Mi'kmaw tradition.
Sweetgrass grows in wet meadows, low prairies, and the edges of sloughs
and marshes . It grows from Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey,
Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, and Arizona. Widely used by North American
indigenous peoples from many different Nations, it is also considered
one of the "four sacred medicines" by many Plains Indians.