Joanne Bauman of Topeka, Kansas is a yarb woman and the host of Mother Earth News' "Heirlooms & Herbals" podcast. Coming from a long line of plant people - Appalachians, an Oglala Lakota medicine woman & a pharmacist father - Joanne encourages us to foster a relationship with the land. She instructs us on how we might give an offering of herbs or our hair to the plants and animals we aim to forage and hunt. We hear about mullein torches, elderberry folklore, herbs specific to the prairie, and 'the doctrine of signatures': an ancient tool for determining a plant's medicinal properties. Joanne then shares a powerful story about both healing the land and intergenerational trauma surrounding Lt. Colonel George Custer, the Lakota & Cheyenne of the Black Hills, and The Battle of the Greasy Grass [aka The Battle of the Little Bighorn]. Perhaps one of the highlights of this entire podcast series comes after her story, we have the great honor of hearing Joanne sing a Lakota horse song. Wow!!! We finish up our backyard garden conversation listening to Joanne's experiences studying psychology & working with folks' dis-eases of the psyche. In closing, Joanne gives us a fun, yet precise tip about the real meaning of the word "guru."
Check out Joanne's Prairie Magic Herbals & her Heirlooms & Herbals Podcast
Follow Our Numinous Nature & my naturalist illustrations on Instagram
Check out my shop of shirts, prints, and books featuring my art
Contact: herbaceoushuman@gmail.com