Canoe Journey Herbalists is Purchasing Land!

WOW!! You all are INCREDIBLE! 

Thank you so much for your generosity in contributing to our efforts to buy land!

Here is our update:

We are still in the process of finding our special piece of land to steward. In the midst of this process - you all have raised enough money for us to increase our budget towards parcels that are actually much more suitable for providing a sustainable home for our project. WE ARE SO GRATEFUL and SO EXCITED!!

All of the dollars you have donated will go to exactly what we said they are going towards - but because you have exceeded our expectations - we are upping our target amount to reflect our DREAM budget - not just our bare minimum. 

The new budget goal will allow us to:

- Buy land that already has existing structures, well, electricity, etc.
- Build any needed infrastructure within the first year
- Expand our options for land purchase 
- Establish our programming headquarters much sooner than anticipated

Thank you again and we are so looking forward to BUILDING and SHARING this dream with you all!

- Canoe Journey Herbalists

Original Gofundme:

We are buying land!

We invite you to join us in creating a much needed centralized home for Intertribal Indigenous medicine and food sovereignty in the Salish Sea area

We need your help in returning Indigenous land to Indigenous stewardship! 



Currently, our project operates through a network of spaces that are collaborations with other community organizations, or gardens that are generously loaned to our project. While these gardens are vital and appreciated, a more sustainable, long term home for our project is needed.

The call from the Indigenous communities we are apart of and serve is loud and clear:

MORE ACCESS TO LAND, MEDICINE, FOOD AND COMMUNITY HEALING IS NEEDED

We are ready to answer the call if you will join us!


SOME INFO ON WHAT LAND SOVEREIGNTY WILL PROVIDE:

The land and facilities will serve as a strong taproot that will nourish and support our vibrant and growing community organizing and education. This sovereign land will be equipped with teaching gardens for food and medicine as well as needed access to safe and sacred green space for the Intertribal Indigenous and BIPOC communities that we serve and collaborate with. This land will be a gathering place, for all of our many projects. It will be a central location for nourishing our many programs and partnerships. A place for healers, learners and community to gather, to come together in ceremony to heal ourselves, one another, and the land. 



Canoe Journey provides a space for intertribal and intergenerational Indigenous people to gather and heal during a transformative 4-week time period each summer --- this land project will support this gathering and healing work in the Salish Sea region YEAR ROUND!

We are creating a much needed secure space that is dedicated to Intertribal Indigenous sovereignty now and for generations to come. 


A NOTE ON COVID-19:


In light of COVID-19, it is unclear when large gatherings like Canoe Journey will be safe again, we see this land as a safe place to create togetherness and healing in Indigenous community through smaller gatherings following CDC guidelines. This is needed in these times of uncertainty, and will continue to be needed for generations to come. This land will also help us to continue to provide traditional and herbal remedies to Indigenous communities suffering from COVID-19 outbreaks from a place of abundance and sustainability.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION WILL SUPPORT…

- Land Purchase
-Putting in a well
- Building traditional Indigenous structures used for preparing traditional foods and   medicines (e.i. earthenware oven and smoke pit)
- Installing irrigation and rainwater catchment
- Building a Yurt (indoor teaching space / medicine preparation space)
- Green house
- Garden shed
- Building fencing
- Soil amendments
- And…sowing the seeds of joy and community healing!


ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE
through our Fiscal Sponsor Tacoma SEED. Please record the Tacoma SEED EIN # for your taxes and save with your donation receipt.  EIN #:  82-5099194 

A THANK YOU NOTE TO OUR SUPPORTERS:

We have received so much support from our generous and loving community and we are so so grateful. We would like to acknowledge our amazing Advisory Council for holding this vision and inspiring and supporting this process. 

We would love to give a thank you and shout out to everyone who has contributed to this project so far, financially or otherwise, we couldn't do it without you! 

And to our generous donors, Group Health Foundation, the Potlach Fund, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, thank you for your contribution which has supported us on this path of expansion and community healing!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU, OUR AMAZING COMMUNITY!


With Love,

Canoe Journey Herbalists


....NEW TO OUR PROJECT? 

READ BELOW FOR HISTORY AND CONTEXT:

The Canoe Journey Herbalists Project is an Indigenous-led, community-supported project consisting of herbalists, healers, and dedicated volunteers.

 Throughout the year, we grow, gather, and craft thousands of herbal remedies by creating collaborations with Indigenous communities and allied organizations. These medicines are then offered as part of a free, decolonized herbal and Indigenous healing space for the largest gathering of Coastal Salish communities in the Pacific Northwest, the Intertribal Canoe Journey.

 We believe that access to traditional medicine, ancestral connection, and health sovereignty are integral to healing personal and collective wounds of trauma and colonization.

 We enact these beliefs by providing opportunities to connect with plant healing, supporting Indigenous community through response to community needs, and fostering pathways for learning about plant medicine, traditional foods, and decolonization through year-round workshops and knowledge-sharing.

 As an organization, we are committed to providing high quality medicine. We do this while remaining in right relationship with the land through adhering to Indigenous values tied to the idea that the wellness of our bodies is inextricably tied to the health of the earth.


We grow, tend, hand harvest, and process all of our medicine, or source it from Indigenous healers, to create a bioregional, ethically sustainable apothecary. We also teach others how to use, grow, and harvest these medicines. By participating in Native events year-round, engaging volunteers, and hosting medicine making parties, we are able to provide education while strengthening our offerings. We call this “many hands medicine”.


All of our work is done in the spirit of Potlach tradition (Chinook jargon for the spirit of gift giving) and that any funding we receive from you will be going directly towards benefitting the Indigenous communities we serve.