"Snake and Plant Medicines" (2022) Sarah Rhude

Snake and Plant Medicines, 2023

• Painting Words (Various Mi’kmaw dialects)
• TOP: MSIT NOKMAQ/ALL MY RELATIONS/TLEYAWI GESPE’GEWA’GI/NI’N NA MI’GMEWA’
• SIDE: NSUGWI’/TMAWEI/WASUEG/WELJEMAJGEWE’L
• SIDE: BLUE-EYED MI’KMAQ/NKEW’JI’J/NMIS/GIJU/NMI
• BOTTOM:PISUN/MTESGM/KESALUL/ANGWEIWATL/NISKAMIJ/ JIPIJKA’M/ GELEIWATL
  
• TOP: ALL MY RELATIONS. FROM ‘THE LAST LAND’. I AM MI’KMAQ
• SIDE: AUNTY! TOBBACO. FLOWER. SWEETGRASS
• SIDE: BLUE-EYED MI’KMAQ. YOUNGER SISTER. OLDER SISTER. MOTHER. GRANDMOTHER (VARIOUS DIALECTS)
• BOTTOM: MEDICINE. SNAKE. I LOVE YOU. TAKE CARE OF. GRANDFATHER. TWO-HORNED SERPENT. PROTECT.

Underneath this painting are words, feelings, incantations, mutterings, and spirals of thought that often stream through my mind and leave me feeling anxious and frozen. When they began to surface on the wood and I could see them, I knew it was a safe space for me to lay them down for the time being. As I wrote, a process of evolution began. The words changed into the medicines that surround me and teach me and keep me alive. I began to think of the cycle of the Nmi moon and Niskamij sun and how they have taught me about trust. I thought of the unconditional love that the trees and plant relatives show us, and the medicine they give. I let go. I trusted the process as they say. I let it drip, splash, and spill out. On top of these pains, hurts, and traumas grew the plant and snake medicines.

These medicines teach, heal and surround me here in Lekwungen territory, while I travel throughout Turtle Island and guided me to my ancestral home in Gespe’gewa’gi. The sweetgrass root can be seen from one side of the painting to the other. This shows how sweetgrass propagates underground through a root system, and how even though we may try to contain plant relatives, they will go live where they will- popping up in various places. I have found that sweetgrass thrives when we are in an active relationship. If I neglect our relationship, their roots will get too tight or bound up. The grass will get brown and wilt. But when I harvest in a good way through ceremony twice a year, and give the roots space by moving them around, they thrive. I have learned so much from sweetgrass within our relationship. The braiding or twisting (a Mi’kmaw way of processing) of the blades is a ceremony I look forward to every year.

The roots of all plants- Sage, Skullcap, Self-heal, Tobacco, Pearly Everlasting, Fireweed, and Purple Violet- intertwine with the Sweetgrass and the spirit of their ancestors and life forces move throughout the plants. This site of gathering between different plant relatives is also a place of generative and layered knowledges and I learn so much from the plants and how they are in relationship.

• Wood Canvas
• Fluid & Gouache
• 6'x8'

Sarah Rhude | Mi'kmaq-Lnu'sgq tleyawi Gespe'gewa'gi | Irish | French | English