Here's a chance to experience traditional Stó:lō foods and tour the ethnobotanical garden outside the Stó:lō Resource Centre on April 26.
It's all part of the Cultural Experience Series, and the day will include a traditional welcome, lunch by donation, as well as presentations by Carrielynn Victor and Helena Paul.
"As Stó:lō we are still very familiar with the food of our ancestors," said Carrielynn Victor.
"Food is very present on the landscape. We typically think of foods like fish and berries, but up to 60 per cent of our diet would have been dried roots and berries."
It's all about roots, and shoots come springtime, said Victor.
She will be giving the presentation on traditional plants and foods, like cow parsnip, elderberry or stinging nettle as examples.
"This particular time of year is exciting with all the shoots popping up."
The presenter from Cheam First Nation will talk about what foods were often eaten, what was harvested, and who did the harvesting. Later they'll break into groups and attempt to plan a day's worth of meals.
Victor says she learned about this traditional knowledge as a teen, and became even more interested in wild food when she became a mother. She has a book about edible, medicinal and useful plants coming out next fall focusing on plant identification.
Salmon and Bannock Lunch will be offered with samples of traditional Stó:lō foods, and they will host tours of the Stó:lō Community Garden and the Shxt'aselhaxwt Ethnobotanical Garden
The event, Experience Stó:lō Foods & Tour Spring Gardens, is on Saturday April 26, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch by donation. RSVP to stolo.tourism@stolonation.bc.ca
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