30 books by POC about plants and/or healing that you

should read (#1) compiled by Toi Scott

Tired of seeing lists and lists of books on herbalism and holistic healing written
by white folks/folks of European descent? Even and especially when it’s about
your own black and brown ancestral traditions? I got you. Here’s a short list to
get you started in the right direction of exploring plant traditions with books
penned by fellow people of color. Now please keep in mind that oral traditions
and exchanging information at the kitchen table and in the comfort of our living
rooms and within our communities is how we mostly roll- BUT ALSO there are
enormous barriers to our books actually being published- and this is one reason
why whenever you look at literature about our indigenous black and brown
traditions the author is almost always white/of European descent. It gets really
old and I know some of you have noticed and are probably as tired as I am of
encountering this every. time. you check out an author’s bio.

So let’s get started-

1. Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueños-

Aurora Levins Morales
2. A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for the Body and Spirit
by Stephanie Rose Bird
3. Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing Patrisia
Gonzales
4. Healing with Herbs and Rituals: A Mexican Tradition;Curandero: A Life in
Mexican Folk Healing Eliseo “Cheo” Torres
5. Braiding Sweetgrass; Gathering Moss Robin Kimmerer
6. Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings Wendy
Makoons Geniusz
7. Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical
Teachings Mary Siisip Geniusz
8. Cedar Songs- Keewaydinoquay Peschel
9. Woman Who Glows in the Dark: A Curandera Reveals Traditional Aztec
Secrets of Physical and Spiritual Health Elena Avila
10. Coyote Medicine: Lessons from Native American Healing. Lewis Mehl-
Madrona
11. A Taste of Heritage: Crow Indian Recipes and Herbal Medicines. Alma
Hogan Snell
12. The Native American Sweatlodge, Joseph Bruchac
13. Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography, An Account of Her Last Years, and Her
Ethnobotanic Contributions. Delfina Cuero
14. Working Cures: Health, healing and Power on Southern Slave Plantations
Sharla Fett
15. Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West: Cultural and Scientific Basis for
Their Use. Cecilia Garcia and JD Adams
16. Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Lowell John
Bean and Katherine S. Saubel
17. Curandero Conversations: El Niño Fidencio, Shamanism and Healing
Traditions of the Borderlands. Antonio Zavaleta and Alberto Salinas Jr.
18. Curanderos: They Heal the Sick with Prayers and Herbs Trevino-
Hernandez, Alberto.
19. Homegrown Healing: Traditional Home Remedies from Mexico Annette
Sandoval
20. Border Healing Woman: The Story of Jewel Babb as told to Pat LittleDog
Jewel Babb and Pat LittleDog
21. Plantas Medicinales de Puerto Rico: Folklore Fundamentos Cientificos by
Esteban Nunez Melendez
22. Nuestra Medicina: De Los Remedios para el Aire y Los Remedios para el
Alma Estela Román
23. African American Folk Healing by Stephanie Mitchem
24. African American Slave Medicine: Herbal and Non-Herbal Treatments by
Herbert C. Covey
25. Secret Doctors: Ethnomedicine of African Americans by Wonda L. Fontenot
26. Earth and Spirit: Medicinal Plants and Healing Lore from Puerto Rico/Hasta
Los Banos Te Curan! María Benedetti
27. 12 Árboles Amigos: juegos y retos etnobotánicos para Borikén / 12 Tree
Friends María Benedetti
28. HealthQuest Staying Strong: Staying Strong: Reclaiming the Wisdom of
African-American Healing (Healthquest : Total Wellness for Body, Mind & Spirit)
by Sara L Reese and Therman Evans
29. Way of the Ancient Healer: Sacred Teachings from Philippine Ancestral
Traditions Virgil Mayor Apostol
30. Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous Leny Mendoza Strobel
*Ayo Ngozi, a dooope black herbalist who does workshops teaching about
herbal history and medicine making and also writes for the online website Herbal
Academy.
*Zachari Curtis is a founder at Good Sense Farm and blogs at their website
about plants, social justice, growing mushrooms and honey.
If there are certain traditions you don’t see here (TCM, Thai Traditional Medicine,
Ayurveda, specific African-based Traditions, etc.) it’s not because I’ve skipped
them. It’s because the interwebs are oversaturated with books edited and/or
written by yt folks- academics, researchers, anthropologists, and folks who
became a part of those traditions and therefore “experts” or knowledgeable
enough to get a book published. And let’s not forget language barriers and what
might be available and what authors might be writing in English.

I am in the process of researching more BIPOC authors of more of our healing

traditions. I look forward to making more lists including many more traditions of
different continents. Probably not Europe, though.

Also- this is just a list of only 30 books, in no order of importance. For more
books check out: http://queerherbalism.blogspot.com/p/herbal-freedom-
school.html

Disclaimer: I can't and won't vouch for every writer on this list or on the HFS
webpage. Please do your own homework.
30 More books by POC about Plants and/or Healing
(#2) compiled by Toi Scott

Back again with a few more books on plant medicine and healing written by
folks of color. Why? Because I'm sure many of us POC are tired of reading
about our own traditions (or traditions influenced by our own) from white
authors. A few months ago I compiled this gem for us as I was doing my own
research and I hope to continue compiling other lists in the future. Shout out to
POC everywhere dealing with filtering through the white/western european lens.

As I mentioned in the last list there are certain traditions such as Traditional
Chinese Medicine, Traditional Thai Medicine and Ayurveda where it is
considerably harder to find legit English translations not written by white
authors. That said, it is also hard to find books written about African
"ethnobotany" and even the healing traditions of the African diaspora written by
folks of African descent. Same goes for books written on plant medicine of
Turtle Island, including the Caribbean- but my quest continues.

As mentioned in the last list, many POC did not write down specifics about our
medicines and healing traditions because this was/is sacred information and
also, some believed verbal transmission of the information was part of the
medicine. And some traditions did write this information but only certain folks
had access to it. Also, we can't leave out that white supremacy and colonization
is at the root of why many of our texts and information were destroyed or had to
go underground for sometimes centuries at a time.

In this day and age, there are many, many folks of color working with plant
medicine who either are not interested in writing a book documenting their
knowledge in those ways, don't have authorization to do so from their elders,
OR find it harder to publish their books due to the content, their skin color, etc.
(See Michele E. Lee's book "Working the Roots" that took 22 long years to
publish)

So, this is just a small list of a little over 30 books written by (or told by) folks of
color. If you haven't seen the last list you can check it out here.

Disclaimer: I can't and won't vouch for every writer on this list or on the HFS
webpage. Please do your own homework.
Without further ado-

1. Fundamentals of Herbal Medicine: History, Phytopharmacology and

Phytotherapeutics Vol. 1 Dr. Kofi Busia
2. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of
the Neijing Suwen with Commentary Dr. Maoshing Ni
3. Native Plant Stories Joseph Bruchac
4. Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants through Native American Stories and
Earth Activities for Children (Keepers of the Earth) Michael J. Caduto
5. Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing
By Dr. Patrisia Gonzales
6. Ewe Osain: 221 Plants, Herbs and Trees essential to the Lucumi tradition
by William J. Irizarry Jr.
7. Guide to Afro-Cuban Herbalism Dalia Quiros-Moran
8. Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses of Fungi
Among the Ahnishinaabeg Keewaydinoquay Peschel
9. KinnicKinnick "Gift of Bear" (An Origin Tale Never Before Recorded, How
to Use Bearberry for Teas, Emergency Food, Treating Diabetes and Internal
Infections)
Keewaydinoquay Peschel
10. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Ayurveda by Gopi Warrier and Deepaka
Gunawant, M.D.
11. Herbal Remedies of the Lumbee Indians by Arvis Locklear
Boughman, Loretta O. Oxendine
12. Handbook of African Medicinal Plants, Second Edition Maurice M. Iwu
13. Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American
Healing
by Michele Elizabeth Lee
14. The History of Chinese Medicine in the People's Republic of China and
Its Globalization Elisabeth Hsu
15. Fire Heart: The Life and Teachings of Maya Medicine Woman Miss
Beatrice Torres Waight- In her own words as told to Katherine Silva
16. Walking in the sacred manner : healers, dreamers, and pipe carriers--
medicine women of the Plains Indians / Tilda Long Soldier and Mark St. Pierre
17. Native Healer, Bobby Lake Thom
18. Hawk Woman Dancing With The Moon: Sacred Medicine For Today's
Woman Tela Starhawk Lake
19. Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography, An Account of Her Last Years, and
Her Ethnobotanic Contributions.
20. The Ways of My Grandmothers. Beverly Hungry Wolf
21. The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the
Medicine Men Vine Deloria Jr.
22. Narrative Medicine: The Use of History and Story in the Healing
Process Lewis Mehl-Madrona
23. A Taste of Heritage: Crow Indian Recipes and Herbal Medicines Alma
Hogan Snell
24. Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants Lowell John
Bean and Katherine S. Saubel
25. Border Healing Woman: The Story of Jewel Babb as told to Pat
LittleDog Jewel Babb
26. Maria Sabina and Her Mushroom Velada (Ethno-mycological
studies) by María Sabina
27. Nature's Weeds, Native Medicines: Native American Herbal Secrets
By Marie Miczak
28. Leaves of Life: Vol 1 Select Medicinal Plants/Single Herbs from Guyana
with Healing Properties by Kazembe Bediako
29. The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies Dr. Vasant Lad
30. Textbook of Ayurveda, vol. 1: Fundamental Principles of Ayurveda Dr.
Vasant Lad
31. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Robin Wall
Kimmerer
32. Seven Days in Usha Village: A Conversation with Dr. Sebi Beverly Oliver
33. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on
the Land Leah Penniman, Karen Washington
34. Decolonize Your Diet: Plant-Based Mexican-American Recipes for
Health and Healing Luz Calvo

If you know of more books written by POC, bless us with them in the comments
:).

See y'all next time for more books written by POC about plants and/or healing!

Healing Liberation and Joy,

Toi
Another 30+ Books by POC about Plants and/or
Healing (#3) compiled by Toi Scott

Back again to give you 30 more books written by POC. Why keep doing this?
Because there are hundreds of white folks/people of European descent writing
about indigenous black and brown traditions who have cushy research jobs or
who are in academia or who are selling our healing knowledge back to us at a
premium price. These folks are seen as "experts" on our cultures and medicines
when we have our own experts that they're hanging out with and getting their
information from. Another reason is that some white folks say that they are the
ones teaching us our ways again or that we don't care about our traditions and
that they are the only ones left to carry on that knowledge, which is WRONG.
And this doesn't even acknowledge why our communities are disconnected
from our healing knowledge and ways of being in the first place- colonialism,
white supremacy, suppression of our knowledge (only to turn around in the last
century and make sweat lodges and yoga and TCM, and yes, even "herbalism",
etc. trendy/income generators when only until recently, we were ostracized,
fined or even killed for trying to honor our traditions.)

If you want to know what "white privilege" looks like today within "holistic
healing", look no further than the trendiest of healing ways today. Who is leading
the classes? Who has money to go study with traditional healers and bring that
knowledge back? Who has access and why? Did they "manifest" the
opportunity and did the stars align or were they not living in an inner city or on a
reservation with less opportunity to take a flight to Peru or India? Were there
less economic barriers to travel? Did their whiteness play a part in the
knowledge that they were given in certain parts of the world? I mean, have you
tried traveling and trying to get information while Black or Brown? There is a
different dynamic that happens in some previously colonized places when white
folks roll through. Just sayin'.

Ok, last thing I want to talk about is the exploitation of our medicine and our
ways. Sure, some of us need to survive and so we sell our knowledge (or bits
and pieces of it). But some white folks are parachuting in as saviors or they want
to be experts in our cultures and are writing books and papers and gaining
notoreity under the guise of helping us. If you want to help our communities-
help us to travel to our ancestral lands or to learn our healing traditions. You
don't have to be an intermediary. We assure you. Help indigenous black and
brown folks connect directly with our traditions. Support indigenous black and
brown healers- and yes, herbalists. You know- we don't usually call ourselves
that but that doesn't make us any less of a medicine maker.

Also, there are probably a number of us who'd like to write about our traditions,
so if you have a connection or can help us self-publish, that's helpful and one
less gigantic barrier. If you've got resources, help us start our own press. Run by
us. Fund our anthologies.

Again, just a reminder- it's not always within our traditions to write down this
kind of knowledge. There is medicine in storytelling and some traditions even
believe that something is lost as soon as you go to write anything down. This
wasn't a problem for thousands of years before our healers and teachers and
tradition keepers were targeted and killed by various colonizers, depending on
what region we're talking about. This is something to think on before jumping to
conclusions about why there may or may not be information available today.

Let's get to the list.

1. Fundamentals of Herbal Medicine: Major Plant Families, Analytical

Methods, Materia Medica Volume 2 Kofi Busia
2. Dongui Bogam a Korean Medicine Classic Heo Jun
3. African Lace-bark in the Caribbean: The Construction of Race, Class,
and Gender Steeve O. Buckridge
4. Medicinal Plants of East Africa JO Kokwaro
5. Ethnobotanic Resources of Tropical Montane Forests: Indigenous Uses
of Plants in the Cameroon Highland Ecoregion by Emmanuel Neba
Ndenecho
6. Medicinal Plants of West Africa Edward S. Ayensu
7. Medicinal Plants of the West Indies Edward S. Ayensu
8. Healing Herbs of Jamaica Ivelyn Harris
9. Bush Doctor Sylvester Ayre
10. Common Medicinal Plants of Portland, Jamaica 2nd Edition (collaboration
of Maroon herbalists and practitioners)
11. Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo & Mojo Conjuring with
Herbs by Stephanie Rose Bird
12. Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies Faith Mitchell
13. Noongar Bush Medicine: Medicinal Plants of the South-west of Western
Australia Vivienne Hansen
14. Black on Earth: African American Ecoliterary Traditions Kimberly N.
Ruffin
15. Ayurveda- A Life of Balance: The Complete Guide to Ayurvedic Nutrition
and Body Types with Recipes Maya Tiwari
16. Indian Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated Dictionary- CP Khare
17. The Handbook of Indian Medicine or Gems of the Siddha Systems T.G.
Ramamurti Iyer
18. Veerasimhavalokanam: Classic Text on Medical Astrology K. Narayanan
19. The Essential Book of Traditional Chinese (multiple volumes)
Medicine Yanchi Liu
20. Traditional Japanese Acupuncture: Fundamentals of Meridian
Therapy The Society of Traditional Japanese Medicine
21. Sowa Rigpa Points: Point Study in Traditional Tibetan Medicine Nida
Chenagtsang
22. The Principles and Concepts of Thai Classical Medicine Somchintana
Thongthew Ratarasarn
23. Medicinal Plants (2 volumes) Manisha Tiwari, Vibha Tandon
24. Healing Plants: A Medicinal Guide to Native North American Plants and
Herbs Ana Nez Heatherley
25. Rooted in the Earth : Reclaiming the African Environmental
Heritage Dianne D. Glave
26. The Beautiful Plants of Kenya- John Karmali
27. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the
Experience Wangari Maathai
28. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development- Vandana Shiva
29. Healing Traditions of the Northwestern Himalayas (SpringerBriefs in
Environmental Science)Pankaj Gupta and Vijay Kumar Sharma
30. Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental
Governance (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies) Clint
Carroll
31. Jurema's Children in the Forest of Spirits: Healing and Ritual Among
Two Brazilian Indigenous Groups (Indigenous Knowledge and Development
Series) Clarice Novaes da Mota

Disclaimer: I can't and won't vouch for every writer on this list or on the HFS
webpage. Please do your own homework.
30 books by POC about Plants and/or Healing (#4)
compiled by Toi Scott

1.   Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Sierra Leone Dr. Cyrus

Macfoy
2.   Indigenous Medicine Among the Bedouin in the Middle East 1st
Edition Aref Abu-Rabia
3.   Doña Queta y el Legado de los Habitantes de las Nubes Aida Guerra
Falcon (Collaborator), Enriqueta Contreras Contreras
4. African American Home Remedies Eddie L. Boyd and Leslie A. Shimp
5. El Bosque Sí Tiene Valor: El Uso de Palmeras en las Comunidades
Campesinas e Indígenas de la Region de Inambari, Madre de Dios,
Perú Narel Paniagua Zambrana (Editor),
Rainer W. Bussmann (Editor), Manuel J. Macía (Editor)
6. Ethnobotanic Resources of Tropical Montane Forests: Indigenous Uses
of Plants in the Cameroon Highland Ecoregion Neba Ndenecho
7. Fresh Water Algae from Balochistan Dr. Mudassir Asrar Zaidi
8. Tarahumara Medicine: Ethnobotany and Healing among the Rarámuri of
Mexico Fructuoso Irigoyen-Rascón, Alfonso Paredes
9. Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided
Sciences
Projit Bihari Mukharji
10. Indigenous Medicine and Health Care Among Paite Tribe of Manipur
Nemthianngai Guite
11. Ser Curandero en Uruapan Teresita de Jesús Ruiz Méndez
12. Urhobo Traditional Medicine John Oroshejede Ubrurhe
13. Traditional Medicine in Africa edited by Isaac Sindiga
14. Bridging the Old and New Traditions of Medicine in Africa David Okpako
15. Medicinal Plants of East Africa J.O. Kokwaro
16. Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine in Africa Abayomi Sofowora
17. Siddha Medicine Handbook of Traditional Remedies Paul Joseph
Thottam
18. History of Medical and Spiritual Sciences of Siddhas of Tamil Nadu P
Karthigayan
19. The Handbook of Indian Medicine or The Gems of Siddha System Dr.
T.G. Ramamurti Iyer
20. Autism and Varma Therapy: A Parent's Guide Sri Pranaji
21. OJAS: Modern Recipes and Ancient Wisdom for Everyday Ayurveda Nira
Kehar
22. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the
Neijing Suwen with Commentary by Maoshing Ni
23. Thai Yoga Massage: A Dynamic Therapy for Physical Well-Being and
Spiritual Energy
Kam Thye Chow
24. Encyclopedia of Islamic Herbal Medicine John Andrew Morrow
25. An Introduction to Islamic Medicine M Salim Khan
26: Avicenna’s Medicine: A New Translation Mones Abu-Asab Ph.D., Hakima
Amri Ph.D.
27. Traditional Medicine in Ghana Dr Kofi Bobi Barimah, Okyere Bonna
28. Traditional Medicine and Women Healers in Trinidad: Postnatal Health
Care
Kumar Mahabir
29. JA Herbs: 40 Jamaican Medicinal Herbs Kukuwa Abba
30. The Science and Romance of Selected Herbs Used in Medicine and
Religious Ceremony
Anthony K. Andoh

**Disclaimer: I can't and won't vouch for every writer on any of these lists.
Please do your homework.