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AN ARCHIVE OF NORTHERN ETHNOBOTANY & CULTURAL HERITAGE
THE LADYBIRD ARCHIVE
The Ladybird Archive is a semi-public collection that seeks to preserve the folk knowledge, memories, stories, photographs, recipes, journals, books, and traditions that connect people of the prairie provinces to the natural world. With humble beginnings as a personal collection of books, field journals, herbaria, family recipes, pictures, & artifacts, The Archive collection has since taken shape into something far greater. It is the heart of this work.
Located in rural Vermilion River County, AB., parts of the archives are currently accessible to the public. This includes select entries from my personal Working Herbal, access to The Ladybird Library, and the Community Resource Directory. We are currently working on scanning the herbaria for the public to view virtually.
Available for purchase from The Archives are texts published by The Ladybird Publishing House, and a small assortment of selected texts leaving the archives.
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JOIN THE LADYBIRD BOTANICAL SOCIETY
The Ladybird Botanical Society was created for those who believe that the story of humanity is inseparable from the stories of the plants who have always lived alongside us- and for those who grieve the loss of these stories. This is a direct invitation to join The Society- and become a central part of the work of The Archive.
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Monthly membership to The Ladybird Botanical Society supports the ongoing work of The Ladybird Archive. As a member, you'll receive access to a private collection of field journals, herbal monoMateria Medica pages, historic and family recipes, ethnobotanical research, and oral history accounts; alongside live classes, monthly Q&As, and behind the scenes research from The Ladybird Archive.
Forget Me Nots
Myosotis spp.
Members will also have opportunities to participate directly in the work of the archive through guided fieldwork and cultural heritage projects. From documenting local plant traditions and interviewing elders, to creating herbarium specimens and preserving family recipes, the Society aims not only to study the cultural memory of the prairies, but to help safeguard it for future generations.
Whether you are a reader, gardener, herbalist, teacher, artist, naturalist, historian, genealogist, homesteader, writer, or simply someone with curiosity about the plant world: there is a place for you here- and The Archives will be better for knowing you.
THE LADYBIRD BOTANICAL SOCIETY IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT. JOIN THE WAITLIST TO SECURE
Together, we can help ensure that the knowledge entrusted to our generation is not forgotten, but preserved, studied, and passed forward.
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Forget Me Nots
WHY BUILD AN ARCHIVE?
Perhaps one of the hardest lessons I have learned in my life is this:
Memory is fragile, and time is a thief.
Every generation inherits knowledge from those who came before them- knowledge often taken for granted. Family memories, stories,
recipes, photographs, journals, and traditions, when not carefully tended, begin to disappear. When we lose these records, we lose more than information - we lose ways of understanding ourselves, our communities, and the natural world.
The Archives exist as a record of nearly lost knowledge.
They are a carefully stewarded resource that will pass on the flame of this knowledge to future generations.
Growing up, I was privileged to be raised in a close-knit, intergenerational community. I have known so many people with stories, experiences, and lessons that need to be remembered, and shared. I think we all have these people in our lives.
Maybe for you, it is a great-grandmother whose garden fed generations. An uncle who could tell the weather by listening to the birdsong. A beekeeper, herbalist, farmer, hunter, home cook, storyteller, or community elder with natural wisdom to share. The kind of
wisdom that belongs somewhere
that will preserve it.
Too often, these stories disappear when the people who carry them are gone.
It is my mission to help preserve these voices, so that they may benefit generations far into the future.
INTERESTED IN
GIVING AN INTERVIEW,
ABOUT YOURSELF,
OR A LOVED ONE?
INTERESTED IN
DONATING?
Many of the records we are documenting exist only in old, obscure books, family collections, handwritten notebooks, and living memory.
The Archive collects, documents, gently restores, and/or preserves selected texts to serve the community throughout the passage of time.