An Dahl La Win,

I am a Gitxsan Mother, Hiihluxw Bilust, Alicia Boudreau, from the house of Delgamuukw. I was taught by my grandmother and aunties from infancy about our culture. How to dance, sing, drum, sew regalia and tell our stories… We learned with our family in different Gitxsan groups that they had started in the city; to stay connected to their people, culture & to support court happenings with our land and title rights, hosting our families when they came down.

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My grandmother was learning from her mother, aunties when she was a little girl & remembers her great great grandmother, Uls, Sophia Johnson, who was a powerful medicine woman, hunter, trapper and wife to the then chief Delgamuukw or Solomon Johnson. She was also the last traditional medicine person of our village, and she was believed to be around 116 at the time of her passing. Grandma and her siblings, cousins and family had to flee their home and villages from RCMP who were coming to take the children away to be tortured and abused in the residential schools, depriving them of learning their culture. Our family would not let their children go. My grandmother’s father and his brother took the children and were forced to move around the villages & traplines hiding from the authorities for many years before they eventually moved to a town enrolled in day school and eventually down to Vancouver where, somewhat assimilated, they stopped looking for them. My grandma’s dad spent some time in jail years later for kidnapping his children from the Canadian government. That is how my family ended up away from our territory.

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I am inspired by stories of my grandmother’s great grandma, how she could heal even the most atrocious maladies with her poultices, teas and natural medicine. I am also inspired by my aunties and grandma who have taught me so much, as much as they were able to learn while struggling to survive attempted genocide of our culture and people. I asked my aunt one day, who is very arthritic and has a hard time drumming and walking now, what I could do to help, what medicine could i gather to make into something….and she suggested Devils Club was always used by their elders to treat pain and many things. She told me where it likes to grow, what it looks like, and that was all she remembered before she was taken to residential school…That is where I started my journey in medicine. I believe the settler medicine of today to be as toxic as it is lifesaving, trading in one immediate threat to your health for a lifetime of chronic illness and disease. I wish to reclaim our once legendary health and strength of our great Gitxsan peoples. Hamiiya to my grandma Amagot and my aunties for inspiring me and teaching and always encouraging me to go farther. They told me to do this for more than just me and our family…and it has really pushed me to always take the time to listen & ask questions. Not just my aunties, but my uncles too, Ron Sterrit & Clifford Wilson. I will always remember and respect them for the time they put in with us kids, our families and youth and in the courts and on the land fighting for our peoples. Hamiya.

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Our people never believed in luck, and that bad luck was just the results of lack of discipline at an earlier time or lack or forethought. And I truly believe this to be true. Our poor health, physical mental and spiritual, is not poor luck on our part but something done to us on purpose so we could be controlled and our land taken more easily from us. So we would give up our land and rights for money when it contains all the riches we need to live strong healthy rich lives for thousands of generations as we had before colonization. But we had to know its worth and value to fight for it. We are remembering.

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When I became pregnant, I stated researching every single ingredient I was eating and putting on my body. I was horrified to realize that baby oil, mineral oil, is a petroleum waste byproduct and that petroleum petrol products were in basically everything sold and commonly used, even products for babies and pregnant women. I learned that many of the food products I ate contained chemicals that could harm or alter my developing baby. I learned alot about the settler culture that ignores what we do to our bodies and in my opinion is one of the main reasons why today, we all suffer from chronic illness and disease which was virtually unheard of by our peoples before colonization. So I had to start making everything i wanted or needed to use on my body, because I couldnt afford the expensive, less toxic “natural” products being sold in stores. And when I realized I could make and sell my medicine at cost NOT profit to our people with a little extra work, I decided to start making Am Wist Medicines. To get non-toxic medicine to our people who were suffering, like my grandma and aunties, for pregnant/breastfeeding women and anyone who wanted to start leading a less toxic lifestyle and reclaim our traditional knowledge.

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In the future, I would like to work on and produce free educational media and printable publications on different topics like Traditional Nutrition, Medicine, and Personal Spiritual/ Mental Health. As well as give more time for plant walks, workshops, and one-on-one discussions with those wanting to know more about what we can do with basic herbs and medicines while sharing learning and growing together as a community.

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Am Wist Medicines is Traditional Indigenous Local and Not-For-Profit. We cannot grow larger than what the land can sustain. And currently personal, individual or family and potlatch/feast orders is all were willing to do. For local pickup, delivery or mail. Local business may want to carry Am Wist Medicine but it is not for profit and cost is the same, low as possible for everyone. While we appreciate the concern about price it is our traditional honor to do this work and provide this service, knowledge and to collect and share these medicines with our people who are unable to do so because of what residential school has done to to us. Robbed us. Of our knowledge and our culture in hopes we will sell it out for beads and trinkets. This medicine is provided in spite of that, in spite of capitalism, and in hopes other young and old indigenous people will pick up the call to learn find harvest make & share these medicines.

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Hamiya.

-Hiihluxw Bilust               (updated 2022)