It’s been raining since last year, and our canyon’s wild native plants, rebounding from our 2020 fire, seem to love it. The white sage, one of the keystone plants of our wild landscapes, has never seemed so beautiful.
White sage (Salvia apiana) after some rain (Pat Murkland Photo)
This month, though, is when the sage thieves are frequently out and about, and we’ll have to be vigilant. We’ll watch for the poachers’ trucks stuffed with barrels or sacks that they’ll fill with their stolen wild white sage. They’ll literally rip off white sage from Southern California public lands and everyone else, to feed an international commercial demand for smudging sticks. News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center first wrote about this plundering of a special sacred native plant from Native American homelands in Stolen Sage, Stolen Identity.
UPDATE:
“Saging the World,” the award-winning film documentary by Rose Ramirez (a Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Dragonfly Award honoree), Deborah Small, and the California Native Plant Society, is the focus of a special art exhibit on Native uses of native plants in Escondido starting next week, January 13, 2022, with a film screening on January 21, 2022.
Saging the World
See the movie trailer here
Details: Art Exhibition, January 13 – February 24, 2023
Escondido Arts Fellowship,
262 East Grand Avenue, Escondido, CA 92025
Website
Film Screening of Saging the World 5 pm Saturday, January 21, 2022.
From the film producers:
”Saging” has become common in movies, TV shows, social media, and cleansing rituals — people burning sage bundles in the hope of purifying space and clearing bad energy.
Instead of healing, the appropriated use of saging in popular culture is having a
harmful effect.
Indigenous communities have tended a relationship with white sage for thousands of generations. White sage (Salvia apiana) only occurs in southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico. Today, poachers are stealing metric tons of this plant from the wild to supply international demand. Saging the World spotlights the ecological and cultural issues intertwined with white sage, centering the voices of Native advocates who have long protected and cherished this plant.
The short documentary was produced by Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, and the
California Native Plant Society to foster awareness and inspire action for white sage.
From California Native Plant Society:
More information on the film, planned screenings, and ways to support white sage.
This wild landscape was completely burned in 2020. White sage is now beginning to flourish there. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Thank you
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, a 501c3 nonprofit led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) this year is celebrating 20 years of saving and sharing Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts. Thanks for your support! News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, your free online newsletter, as always, values you and welcomes your comments and ideas. Please EMAIL.