Creators Garden - Joseph Pitawanakwat

09/12/2026

This video is from July. I remember just pulling over to check if the seeds took.

All those little single leaves along the bottom are baby nimepin seedlings lol. I love checking on these little bush gardens and seeing so much activity.

There was so many babies we actually grabbed a bunch.. lol.. Junaid raised them through the summer. This fall, they’ll be taken to a community for one of our plantings.

Community plantings are just pure magic.. lol.. community-wide responsibility being put into practice.. people gathering seed, raising seedlings, planting, checking on them, and making sure these medicines have places to grow for the people who will need them. It is the most amazing thing to see..

Starts here!

09/01/2026

08/28/2026

I love the way kids look outside. They resist the concept of "that." Even if you ask, "What is that?" they will observe, and wait for a presence to appear. Especially if we don't label it immediately.

One of this plant's common names is "flytrap dogbane." It attracts hordes of pollinators. Their little mouthparts get trapped in the flower, and when the bugs have to force themselves free, that movement is part of what liberates and moves the pollen.

It's hilarious. You can watch this happening over and over!

Interesting...

Then!! you can also sometimes observe this plant's tolerance to fire. This guy can be popped back up and BLOOMING 6–8 weeks following a devastating forest fire. Even when the structure above breaks, the underlying network remains.

Interesting...

Sometimes it's called spreading dogbane because of the way it spreads underground. A huge patch containing dozens and dozens of stems can actually be one clonal organism.

That's pretty perception-altering. What looks like a whole crowd ontop can be one connected mesh of a being below.

Interesting...

Then you see it being used.

Zesaap, we call it. We use it to make nets lol.

In the fall you can gather loads of these dry stalks for fibre. Many of the "fishing islands" our communities use are covered in it. Within living memory, our communities remember separating the fuzzy silk from the seed and pod, using the fluff for batting, and bringing bags of those seeds out to fishing islands to plant future net material.

this isn't really an "as above, so below" sort of dealio.

It's more interesting than that. Most kids see this deeply, I believe.

It's what can happen when you allow a presence to appear before deciding what it is.

No judgement. No need to immediately reduce it to a label. You observe how it grows. What catches on it. What survives with it. What happens when fire moves through it. How one stem relates to another. What it becomes in people's hands. What relationships gather around it.

Eventually, an identity begins to emerge.

Simply, We call that identity Zesaap.

Asab, Net.

08/25/2026

Isn't that gorgeous!

Zhaashaabwaakse, Muma called it. She told me and my wife to find:

"The plant that has one long diamond-shaped leaf that has the stem piercing right through the centre of that leaf."

Honestly.. it didn't take long.. As unusual as that description sounds, it's singularly perfect. There really is just one leaf like that. Zhaashaa is like "to pierce through something."

Then, just like everyone else, I told her, "In English, Zhaashaabwaakse is called Boneset, because it fixes bones?"

Her response was outrageously rich.

"I know those sorts of medicines to be able to do anything. I won't dare say anything different than that truth. But my mom used it for fevers.... and....... it....... sure......... does......... taste............... AWFUL."

And her head would always shake when she said "awful." 😂

Its gift is clearly fevers and temperature regulation.

Its English name, "Boneset," refers to its relationship with those nasty "breakbone" fevers, including dengue. The fever and pain can make it feel like every bone in your body is broken. Then you start sipping on this absolutely awful-tasting broth, the fever breaks, and it can feel like all those bones suddenly "set" again.

That's the story behind Boneset.

But I also know it to support bone and connective-tissue healing. Hormonal rejection of connective scar tissue allows the immune system to reabsorb it, and range of motion can generally be restored.

I haven't used Zhaashaabwaakse for that reason in probably 16 or 17 years, though.

The last time was a little girl, maybe 10 years old, after a crazy-carpet accident. She did poultices. It helped. The scar tissue receded, but it took weeks, and she developed a nasty rash on her elbow.

Ziisagopimish is WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY quicker.

And way more gentle.

Which means safer.

If I could go back, I would never use Zhaashaabwaakse for that application again.

"There is usually always better. Never stop learning until you find the best," Ronnyba said to me.

Every plant has a gift to share.

That doesn't mean it's only capable of doing one thing. These medicines can do a whole bunch of things. But just because a medicine can do something doesn't necessarily mean that's the job we should give it.

I hate doing dishes.

I LOVE cooking.

I can do the dishes. I'll do them if they need doing. But that's not where you'll see the best of me.

Medicines are like that too.

Good medicine isn't just learning everything a plant can do.. It's learning where that plant gets to be its gift.

Don't make your medicines do the dishes.

Let them cook.

08/23/2026

With Georgian bays water level reliably dropping again, the shorelines gifts are coming back! ..slowly.. I mean, thats what people say.

I think we should be helping this happen, after all, we can also benefit. Pretty simple math..

I know i post about this guy alot, our smoking cessation medicine, right.. This little handful of Ishkodewaabigoniihs felt different, like it was like my shoreline paintbrush.

Each plant produces 10,000-40,000 seeds.. if i grab a few hundred plants, hold them upside down and shake it off, I am essentially painting our shoreline.

Its like we got this shoreline in our home... and its going to be alight.

This little handful was picked for our smoke medicine session with Mchigeeng HC staff..

I cant wait to show them this area next year next year ..everything I shook off today pops up to form an impenetrable wall of pale purple smoke medicine. Thats what they dont see. But ill show them next year!

Sometimes restoration isnt just an intervention at all, its just what happens when you take care of your relationships.

That's what they dont know.

That shoreline is not just scenery, its a friend.

Also...I think I chose the wrong song for this reel.

08/21/2026

Ngl the flurry of ai, global chaos, everything is a lot.. there is so much confusion.. perplexing.. rather than dwell on the mysteries of the human, sometimes I like to just look outside, find a mystery there and dwell on that!

One of my favorite bugs is going to sleep soon, their name is Disaawe. Most people call a cicada.. the name means little painter, obviously because thats what they do.. when they all sing thats when the berries ripen (wait..stop.. think about that for a second…….cool eh?!?!).. however, I dont understand how, have never seen him with no brush, or paint.. now THIS is perplexing.

Maybe one day I’ll catchem. Anyone ever catch disaawe with a brush and paint? Post your photos below! (I fixed the settings!!)

I think they use their voice to paint. What do you think Jacob Wemigwans?

08/20/2026

Hey friends!

Check this out, curtis sent me a text as I was sitting in front of this flower.. so i snapped a pic, i was just sitting at the shore enjoying manitoulin magic.. actually just thinking about how sometimes the land itself will inspire a community.

There was one community who noticed a new plant popping up here and there, to suddenly carpeting the entire community in a short time. I randomly posted about the mental health values of that particular flower.. long story short I shared with them what i knew about that flower and turns out, later that year there was a flurry of tragedy that struck. The land spoke and we listened..

Our medicines will find us when we need them. We are in a very special relationship with these medicines whether we want to or not. Undying, they will always be there for us.
You have anyone in your life like that? Someone who will always show up? Take a second and feel how that relationship makes you feel.. we are surrounded by love, and that is a good thing. Curtis, I think this medicine found your community.