Native plants provide fibers for many uses and are rooted in Indigenous cultural practices spanning many generations. Please join us (via Zoom) for a presentation on native plant fibers by Redbird, a native Pomo, Wailaki, Wintu, and Paiute teacher. Redbird will show examples of his work, including traditional items crafted with dogbane grown and harvested in a patch in Sonoma County that has been tended continuously by indigenous people for thousands of years.

Participants will be invited to submit questions during the event. A video of the webinar will be made available to registrants within approximately one week of the event.

To register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zjbCmT0NSFuDe8SfY1g5vQ

Edward (Redbird) Willie is a native ecologist with many years’ experience teaching Traditional Ecological Knowledge, fire ecology, herbalism, permaculture, and ancestral skills to people of all ages. Also an artist (drawing, painting, and sculpture), he has in recent years been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts. (buckeyegathering.net). He also has been an adjunct instructor for Weaving Earth (weavingearth.org) and land steward for the Cultural Conservancy (nativeland.org). He is the illustrator of a recently published children’s book, Adventures of Two Coast Miwok Children (marinindian.com/single-post/new-book-on-coast-miwok-life-for-young-readers).

This webinar will be streaming live via Zoom from the Fibershed Learning Center, a multi-use space to demonstrate and provide hands-on connections to natural fiber and dye systems. The Learning Center will open later this year in Point Reyes Station, California, on the traditional and ancestral territory of the Coast Miwok and within the historic Black Mountain Ranch property.

Proceeds from each event support the class instructor and contribute to Fibershed for educational programming. A portion of the proceeds from each virtual event will also be shared with a local and mission-aligned non-profit organization, selected by the instructor. The recipient of the donation from this class is the Buckeye Gathering Native Youth Scholarship Fund; the Buckeye Gathering is an annual event that offers a week of practical classes on time-honored living skills.

Currently scheduled online events are listed on our Learning Center page.

(Photos by Paige Green)