GSSC Seminar Series
14 January 2025
“Pick only what you need” – Plants used by NWT Gwich’in
Alestine Andre (Northern Canada)
12:00-13:00
Over the centuries, generations of Gwich’in people lived in the northern Boreal Forest region of northern Canada, today known as the Northwest Territories. By the seasons, extended families subsisted along rivers, lakes, on the land, in the mountains and travelled far and wide amongst trees, shrubs and other plants to arrive at areas known for animal, fish and bird resources. Grandparents, mothers, fathers and members of the group each held individual or collective knowledge of the plants and their uses for medicine, food, fuel, shelters, or tools. While everyone possessed a basic knowledge of the plants, only a few folks held in-depth knowledge about the plants for more specific uses. In the Gwich’in Ethnobotany research projects carried out with Gwich’in Elders by the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute over the years, Gwich’in people were eager to share their plant knowledge passed to them by their own Elders so the documented information can be saved for their grandchildren and other people in the future. This plant knowledge, still practiced today by NWT Gwich’in people and families, include teachings about respect for plants, their uses and is being passed on by harvesters, land users or school programs in Gwich’in communities.
Alestine Andre visits MESH from northern Canada as Research Fellow from November 2024 to January 2025. She is a Gwichya Gwich’in Elder from the Gwich’in First Nation from the community of Tsiigehtchic in the Northwest Territories. She grew up on the land with her extended family and grandmother at their seasonal land camps and today is a plant medicine specialist, a fisherwoman, knowledge keeper, and teacher. From September 1959 to June 1970, Alestine spent 12 years in residential school in Aklavik, Inuvik, and Yellowknife. In 1970 she graduated from grade 12 in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
Today Alestine has an Associated Degree in Public Administration from Camosun College (1987), a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Women's Studies from the University of Victoria (1994), and an Interdisciplinary (INTD) Master’s degree in the School of Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria (2006). Her master’s thesis titled Nan t’aih nakwits’inahtsih (the land gives us strength); The medicine Plants used by Gwich’in People of Canada’s Western Arctic to Maintain Good Health and Well Being was based on the traditional plant knowledge of Gwich’in plant specialist, Mrs. Ruth Welsh and Alestine’s work with the GSCI and Aurora Research Institute. This latter research resulted in the book Gwich’in Ethnobotany: Plants Used by the Gwich’in for Food, Medicine, Shelter and Tools by Alestine Andre and Alan Fehr (4th Edition, 2022).