Relatives

Abstract

This poem is a recollection of my own childhood. It is a reconnecting and remembering of the many lessons I learned from plant relatives and a reflection of how traditional medicines heal us and hold us both physically and emotionally. I use the framing of relatives that comes from other Indigenous scholars’ frameworks of relationality and kincentricity. These understandings of being in relationship emphasize the importance of nonhuman relatives not just as a health or food resource but as a relative with which to engage in reciprocal relationships with. These relationships transform us, they raise us, and they heal us. To view the original version of this poem, see the supplemental material section of this article online.

My mom has no time to plant a garden

Her tired hands come home too late to pour their love into the earth

They say that plants are our oldest body memories

I recall how medicine sprouted from our garden

Yerba Buena patches where our hose leaked

Mullenin in the untended flower beds.

There’s something so beautiful about relations coming to visit

I would sometimes lay in their arms

Smelling the perfume of their embrace

Sweet songs rolling off my lips

Like aunties they helped raise me

Cups of tea on nights I no longer felt myself

Somewhere under a red sun they taught me to love the earth

And embrace it with my roots

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-hpp-10.1177_15248399221121138 – Supplemental material for Relatives

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-hpp-10.1177_15248399221121138 for Relatives by Deniss Martinez in Health Promotion Practice