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For 15 years, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library has been hosting an exhibit by the Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists every spring.\u00a0 These artists keep alive a tradition of many centuries by creating scientifically accurate portrayals of the flowers, leaves, seeds, and other parts of plants, often with more detail and accuracy than a photograph.<\/p>\n
One of the local, participating artist is Sharon Birzer.\u00a0 Recently, she illustrated many of the native plants of southwest Alaska, published in \u201cYungcautnguuq nunam qainga tamarmi = All the Land’s Surface is Medicine.\u201d\u00a0 This new book is written by a consortium of experts in cultural anthropology, ethnobotany, and the Yup\u2019ik language, and is based on a 20-year oral history project to preserve the stories of elders and their traditional way of life.<\/p>\n
The book is divided equally into two parts.\u00a0 The first is a catalog of the native plants used for food or medicine, organized by the time of harvest and starting with the plants that define the spring after long, cold winters.\u00a0 One example is Mertensia maritima<\/em> or Neqnirliaraat, literally \u201cbest-tasting things,\u201d a plant I grow in my garden.\u00a0 Although not widely used, \u201cone Nelson Island woman reported collecting them before they flowered, cooking the stems briefly, and eating them with seal oil.\u201d<\/p>\n The traditional tales of the plants and the land where they grow are collected in the second half of the book.\u00a0 Quoting many of the elders, these entries are in English on the left page, and in Yup\u2019ik on the right.\u00a0 This includes \u201cmouse foods,\u201d caches of plants parts harvested and stored by voles and lemmings before the onset of winter, and an important source of food for humans.<\/p>\n Winner of the 2022 Annual Literature Award from the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.<\/p>\n Excerpted from the Fall 2021 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For 15 years, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library has been hosting an exhibit by the Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists every spring.\u00a0 These artists keep alive a tradition of many centuries by creating scientifically accurate portrayals of the flowers, leaves, seeds, and other parts of plants, often with more detail and accuracy than a photograph. One of the local, participating artist is Sharon Birzer.\u00a0 Recently, she illustrated many of the native plants of southwest Alaska, published in \u201cYungcautnguuq nunam qainga tamarmi…<\/p>\n