Ethnobotany: It’s not just about the plants we eat

Ethnobotany is about how people use and interact with plants. Looking through the collections of the Science Museum we found inspiration in these Ojibwe sweet grass baskets. Having some birchbark and porcupine quills on hand and using the sweetgrass we grow in the Turtle Medicine Garden, we decided to try our own renditions of a sweetgrass basket top. We harvested and dried the sweetgrass which then had to be soaked in water to make it pliable again. As you can see in the pictures, Dahjiae’s and Mariah’s basket tops turned out beautifully!