The Gift of Plantain
Plantain. The most unnoticeable little plant. Someone I’ve stepped over thousands of times throughout my life and never paid attention to. One day, she made herself known to me. Then, she came from several different directions to gift me her powerful medicine.
I’ve always struggled with not being indigenous to the land that I currently live on. My family comes from so many different directions that sometimes I feel like my loyalties are spread too thin.
Here in North America, I belong to the reputation of the “white man.” It’s an identity I wish I didn’t belong to, but I do mostly because of my skin colour. It’s not just skin colour though. Even though my roots aren’t from France or England, I become ‘the white man’ every time every time I succumb to consumeristic thinking and greed. Even though I try to fight it, it feels impossible to completely evade. Where do I belong? How can I belong here? I’ve grown up here in the Pacific Northwest and I love these lands. I want to belong here.
I found healing to this dilemma when I read the chapter in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of the Plants called, “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place” where little weed Plantain shines. I read a story that I could relate to so deeply. Just like me, Plantain’s ancestors were immigrants! Plantain will never be indigenous to these lands, but she became naturalized. Now, being such a useful member of the plant world, no one minds the difference between indigenized and naturalized. She belongs here now and is wanted.
“Just a low circle of leaves, pressed close to the ground with no stem to speak of, it arrived with the first settlers and followed them everywhere they went. […] At fist the Native people were distrustful of a plant that came with so much trouble trailing behind it […] When it became clear that White Man’s Footstep would be staying on Turtle Island, they began to learn about its gifts. […] Every part of the plant is useful. […] This wise and generous plant, faithfully following the people, became an honored member of the plant community. It’s a foreigner, an immigrant, but after five hundred years of living as a good neighbor, people forget that kind of thing. […] Its strategy was to be useful, to fit into small places, to coexist with others around the dooryard, to heal wounds. Plantain is so prevalent, so well-integrated, that we think of it as native. […]
Maybe the task assigned to Second Man is to […] follow the teachings of White Man’s Footstep, to strive to become naturalized to place, to throw off the mind-set of the immigrant. Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit. To become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your responsibilities. To become naturalized is to live as if your children’s future matters, to take care of the land as if our lives and the lives of all our relatives depend on it. Because they do.” (Kimmerer, R.W., p.213-215)
From one moment to the next, my struggle of wanting to belong here in Canada but never feeling like I had the permission to belong, was soothed. Just as Plantain is a healing balm to our open wounds, even her story acted as a healing balm to my internal struggle. I wanted this story to be broadcasted to all of North America. “I know I have European decent, but I love these lands! This is my home too! I can fit into small spaces and coexist here! I can be useful!”
A few days later I was on a plant walk around the school I teach at led by Lori Snyder. Among the indigenous plants that she identified and told us about, she told us about Plantain (White Man’s Footstep). She mentioned that it’s a powerful antihistamine among its other uses. Her pointing out this little plant days after I had so deeply identified with the story of Plantain, felt like a pat on the shoulder. “See, Deanna? Plantain does belong! Just like you can belong.” I also took a mental note about the anti-histamine bit.
The next day one of the support staff at our school was having a terrible allergy attack. No one had medicine for her. I told her about Plantain. We went out around the schoolyard together and picked a handful of the short, round leaves. We washed them off and she ate them. Her sneezing and itchy, watery eyes were quickly relieved. We thought it must be coincidence, but six hours later, she said she started sneezing again as the healing effect of Plantain, wore off. My mind was blown by how incredibly useful this little plant truly was. Not only is her story an inspiration, here she was right in front of me: a free antihistamine that doesn’t come with sketchy side-effects.
That weekend my family went on a trip to a remote island here in the Pacific Northwest. My children ran free and wild and were having the time of their lives. That is, until my youngest started screaming hysterically, in pain. Alarmed, I ran up from the beach to find him and realized that he had stepped on a wasps’ nest. He had been stung three times: twice in the neck, and once right beside his eye. I was envisioning his neck swelling shut. We were in the middle of nowhere. No doctors. No medicine.
Wait…medicine! Plantain! We were standing on a dirt path and I quickly began to scan the ground for Plantain. She was everywhere. Flooded with relief and gratitude for this useful little plant, I quickly picked several handfuls. I gave one handful to my sobbing little boy to eat and I chewed up the rest and spread it out on top of his bites. Within an hour the stings stopped hurting and the stings never got itchy afterward. Have you had a wasp sting before? They usually ache for a day and then itch for weeks afterward! This plant quickly became a good friend.
Plantain shines a bright light to all of us immigrants. Finding unused spaces, coexisting peacefully with those around her, and becoming extremely useful, she sets a strong example. She is always there to help. Even when our hearts are scattered around the world, and our cultural loyalties spread thin, we can still make ourselves useful wherever our two feet happen to be standing.
There is healing for all of us, in every way. If a little plant helped heal part of my identity, while also healing my son’s wasp stings on a practical level, think of what expansive forms of healing are available! The land is our deep medicine cabinet, stocked full of everything we need to heal and be whole. She gives for free in exchange for relationship. We need to recognize our role in finding our way through this treasure trove. We need to give heed to those who have already been listening, learning, and observing since time immemorial. We don’t need money to live: We need this land.
References
Want to learn more about how to identify this beautiful plant? Check out this external link. I also got the above photo from them: ediblewildfood.