Ways of Knowing: Cranberry
Vaccinium vitis-idea
Ntl'ät 

The smell on the air when capelin roll, the fog lifts. The blueberries are ripe. Feet in rubber boots and up the trail with mom to fill buckets and put up for another year of summer-in-a-jar.

There’s frost on the air and fat rubies shine like scattered pirate treasure across the rocky barrens. These ones we call partridgeberries.

Later, a dog-eared field guide. Microscopes, mathematical modelling and manuscripts. My favourite berries are all Vaccinium.

A new home on the other end of the boreal forest. There’s an ancient word, ntl’ät, and so much to learn. But I still know where to find the berries.

This work juxtaposes the ‘Victorian science’ focus on collecting and preserving with the impermanence of natural pigments and textiles. The embroidered botanical drawing reflects an intergenerational passing-down of skills that includes identifying and using edible plants. While the rendering is less precise, a wealth of accurate knowledge about ecology and technology is bound up in our experience of simply living, interpreting the world around us and adapting to change.

Our relationship with edible plants offers a cross-cultural touchstone that can further our understanding as we forge a new and integrative approaches to research that include both conventional science and Indigenous knowledge.