Who we are:
We are undergraduate and graduate students at the University of California Santa Barbara and members of the local Native affiliated community interested in creating, preserving and educating others about Indigenous botanical spaces and practices. It all started with a dream to create an indigenous foods and medicines garden for and by our American Indian and Indigenous students. The Un
iversity is located on ancestral land of the Chumash people. We believed a garden would be one way to honor these ancestors as well as a way to provide our American Indian& Indigenous students with a place to grow foods and medicines for their consumption and use, with an emphasis on native and indigenous plants. Our current garden projects:
1.Indigenous Foods Garden Project--located at West Campus Family Student Housing gardens, this project was born through the ideas of our co-founders Jessica Foster and Margaret McMurtrey who felt it was important to create a space for natives to grow food and medicinal plants, with an emphasis on plants that are important to indigenous cultures and ancestries. This space is also an opportunity for inter-tribal and inter-community engagement and sharing. Our supporters of this project include: American Indian Health and Services (AIHS), Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER), and UCSB Family Student Housing Tenants Association, and the local Chumash Community. Our second project, is adjacent to the American Indian Cultural Resource Center, which is located in the Student Resource Building, the hub of student resources on campus. The garden is probably only about 50 square feet, but is a demonstration garden where there are native plants with signage identifying the plants and their natural history. We use this space for quick demonstrations and workshops.
2. American Indian Cultural Resource Center Chumash Plants Garden-- located just outside of the American Indian Cultural Resource Center at UCSB's Student Resource Building(SRB), which is the hub of student resources on campus. This garden was put in place by the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity & Ecological Restoration (CCBER) upon the construction of the SRB to honor the ancestral lands it sits upon. We, in coordination with CCBER and the Education Opportunity Program, maintain the garden space. Our other projects:
*We host workshops on topics regarding gardening, preparing, and cooking native and indigenous plants/foods.
*We offer indigenous catering services to small events for the campus and local community. Please check out our website for more information. Interested in helping out? Please like our page, follow us so you stay up to date, and message us if you are interested in getting involved!
