SPEAKERS:
Rose Ramirez, Author, Photographer, Filmmaker and California Indian Basketweaver
Deborah Small, Author, Artist, Photographer, and Professor Emerita at California State University San Marcos
“A fire went through our family’s sage gathering ground, and maybe five acres of white sage just burned to the ground. I was upset, but my uncle said, ‘It’s good—the world just needed saging off.’ ”
California Indians have been using white sage for food, medicine and ceremony for thousands of years. This region is the epicenter for white sage, as well as black sage, Cleveland sage, hummingbird sage, thistle sage, and chia.
The commercialization of white sage has become international in scope. Walmart, Etsy, and Amazon all market smudge sticks, sage bundles, and "cleansing" kits with abalone shells and feathers, fueling a growing controversy around cultural appropriation.
Much of the white sage for the international market is unscrupulously foraged. Tongva educator Craig Torres tells us: “If we don’t fight to protect the plants and to protect the land, they’re no longer there for us. The connection to who we are as a people has everything to do with the plants."
Acjachemen educator Heidi Lucero grows sage: "If you live in California, there's no need to wild gather. Grow your own! The climate is perfect. Save your $10 on a sage bundle and buy a plant that gives you sage all year long."
We hope you'll join us in cultivating white sage in your gardens or nurturing the plants in containers on your decks, porches, and windowsills. You'll attract bees, butterflies, birds, and other beneficial insects. You'll better understand how the health and well-being of our species is inextricably connected with the plants that sustain us.
You'll be creating a more resilient future. You'll be SAGING THE WORLD.
Rose Ramirez has a BA in American Studies and an MA in Public History. She is a photographer, filmmaker and California Indian basketweaver. She has worked with Native artists and documents California Indian culture and has written a number of articles on this subject. She has lectured on photography, ethnobotany and basketweaving. She and her husband, Joe Moreno, have been working with the California Indian communities south of the border for almost twenty years. https://roseramirez.wordpress.com
Deborah Small is an artist, photographer, and Professor Emerita at California State University San Marcos. She is a member of the Chia Cafe Collective, and she was instrumental in helping to produce their publication, Cooking the Native Way. Her collaborative public art as well as her individual and collaborative exhibitions have been shown internationally. https://deborahsmall.wordpress.com
Rose and Deborah's most recent book is the Ethnobotany Project: Contemporary Uses of Native Plants of Southern California and Northern Baja California Indians, first published in 2016, and re-published in English and Spanish by the Malki Museum Press in 2018.
In 2010 they published Edible, Medicinal, Material, Ceremonial: Contemporary Ethnobotany of Southern California Indians, available as a free download at: https://deborahsmall.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/ethnobotany-calendar-2010.pdf
NOTE: White Sage (Salvia apiana) seeds and plants will be available during the meeting.
6:30-7:00pm: FIRST PRESENTATION
Propagation of California Native Plants: Seeds & Cuttings
Speaker: Amy Huie, CNPS-SD Propagation Chair and Plant Propagation Instructor, Cuyamaca College
7:00pm-7:30pm: A time for discussion, camaraderie, visiting, and enjoying the sales table.
7:30pm: FEATURED PRESENTATION