Saturday, February 28, 2009

Dragonfly Lecture on Monday

Traditional uses of plants
Foods, medicines, tools, and materials for arts are all around us, in native plants.
The First People were geniuses when it came to knowing the plants and discovering their many uses. Whether a plant root made a good dye for basketry, or another plant offered leaves that made a great shampoo or eye wash, or another offered blossoms for tea, the First People were the experts.
Yucca, for example, makes food and fibers. You can eat parts of the stalk and find it delicious, and use the same part of stalk to make rope.
Learn about fascinating traditional native plant uses, including yucca, from William Pink (Cupeno/Luiseno). 
Details: Monday, March 2, 6 p.m. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 17 W. Hays St., Banning, CA. Donations gratefully accepted. 
Mr. Pink has worked in California Indian Arts for more than 30 years and serves as a consultant in cultural resources and traditions of the First Cultures. He often is a go-to person when it comes to ethnobotany and the traditional uses of native plants.
Mr. Pink is a member of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Board of Directors and has designed a proposed garden for the new center, featuring important traditional plants from desert, mountains, and canyons. Come see the exciting blueprint and learn our dreams for the future.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Flute-making in the North

Our gentle friend Antonio Flores, who enjoys teaching people how to make and play Pomo-style wooden flutes, will be teaching another class on elderberry flute-making this coming weekend. This class will be in Northern California; for information click here. 
While the class may be in the north, we note that some elderberry wood in the class is local to the San Gorgonio Pass. 
Many just saw it as dead wood ... but to Antonio, it was a future of beautiful music.