Revered Roots: Ancestral Teachings and Wisdom of Wild, Edible, and Medicinal Plants

Biographical Note:

LoriAnn Bird is an Indigenous Métis herbalist and educator with a deep knowledge of wild, medicinal, and edible plants. She is a descendant from the T'suu tina, Dene, Cree, Nipissing, and Anishinaabe Peoples, mixed with French, Swedish and Celtic ancestry. She was born and raised on the lands of the Squamish people, near Vancouver, Canada, overlooking the Salish Sea on the Pacific Northwest Coast of Turtle Island.

Through Indigenous ways of knowing and pedagogies, LoriAnn leads people of diverse backgrounds in reconnecting to the Earth's wisdom. LoriAnn created Earth Awareness Realized Through Health and Company in 2013 to share First People's perspectives on wild, edible, and medicinal plants. Her practices include plant identification walks, illustration and plant medicine workshops, homemade products for the skin, consulting on garden design, and public speaking.

In 2022 LoriAnn and her friend Laura Cisneros founded InHarmony InNature Collective to reclaim and share ancient arts, like dreaming, the cosmos, moon cycle gardening, medicine making, and more. She walks gently and teaches primarily on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, as well as neighboring Coast Salish nations.

"[A] beautiful book. The illustrations by Julia Alards-Tomalin are frame-worthy. Would I trust my own ability to identify and harvest wild plants? Probably not. But I notice them more after reading this book and that's the first step to the reverence Bird teaches."

"With elegant reverence, LoriAnn Bird weaves connections among ancestral herbalist teachings from several lineages. She invites us into our own personal journey with plant medicine, giving us lessons on how to respect and honor the power of plants and their human knowledge keepers. She carefully and lovingly attributes each piece of teaching to its source. This book is a powerful legacy that we need more than ever at this time of healing and reconciliation. May its words fly into the world and land softly in the hearts of all who need them."

"Revered Roots is truly an essential work of art that imparts the sacredness of each plant, in each harvesting step and in the interspecies relationships with all of life. The authentic and grounded nature of LoriAnn Bird comes through the pages to connect us with a sense of belonging and reverence."

"Revered Roots is a profound journey that gracefully and colorfully intertwines Indigenous wisdom with practical plant knowledge, offering a guide to reconnect with Nature's green gifts. LoriAnn's heartfelt teachings inspire readers to honor and deepen their sacred relationship with the Earth."

"LoriAnn Bird weaves stories of plants into a tapestry of vivid imagery and teachings, allowing us to experience earth medicine in a way we never have before. Like a family gathered around the table exchanging stories of cherished ones, Lori Ann's plant musings draw us into an intimate connection with our More-Than-Human Kin. From a small moment in a back alley in East Vancouver to hundreds of years of history from around the world, Revered Roots feels like an equal blend of encyclopedia, history book, and love letter. Get to know plants in a truly profound way through the words of a master storyteller, sister, friend, mother, and plant protector."

"This is a beautiful book on every level; the gorgeous drawings and painting of plants, the photography and images throughout, but also the words and the feelings on each page. Intensely moving and remarkably practical, deeply personal and filled with worldly wisdom, this book offers the reader a glimpse into a whole new way of seeing the nature. With a plant centered focus, through a biophilia lens, the author invites us to re-evaluate and re-vision our own relationships with plants and the natural world. This book is destined to be a classic."

"LoriAnn has put a lifetime of collected knowledge into a work that connects people to plants in ways both honorable and honest. Revered Roots extols both the practical and sacred uses of the plants we see around us, while also nurturing our respect for our More-Than-Human Kin and our responsibility to the greater world. It has been a pleasure to be a teacher and herbal mentor to LoriAnn for many years."

"LoriAnn Bird, in her book Revered Roots, creates a beautiful story about our plant relatives with our history woven between the leaves of each page. She highlights each being and allows them to tell their story, including who they are, their benefits, uses, ways to eat, look-alikes, and what makes them unique. It's like looking at an old family album and finally knowing who each person is and what their spirit has to offer the world. The book, complete with information about our relatives, wrapped its warm arms around me as I nestled in to read each page, excited to learn more about family. LoriAnn's voice provides a continuous honoring of our ancestors, our brilliance, and our resilience."

• Evergreen tips from spruces, pines, and firs
• Hawthorn berries, leaves, and flowers
• Plantain seeds and foliage
• Oswego tea leaves and blooms
• Slippery elm bark
• Motherwort flowers, stems, and leaves
• Black cohosh roots and rhizomes
• Marshmallow root
• Cottonwood buds and bark
• Plus dozens more