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Bird’s words take flight

A ‘love of our winged relatives’ spurs a Métis author with a serendipitous surname to write a book dedicated to protecting our diminishing biodiversity

July 31, 2025

A new book and accompanying website is an extraordinary accomplishment — the more so, because it’s author LoriAnn Bird’s first book. 

Bird, who is a Métis herbalist, completed Revered Roots: Ancestral Teachings and Wisdom of Wild, Edible and Medicinal Plants after nine months of intense focus. It was released in March.

In it she shares a lifetime of interest in, and knowledge of, local plants. For Bird, “local” means plants that are growing right around us. This sometimes includes plants that we label as invasive, such as blackberry or dandelion. The book is part reference manual, part pharmacopoeia and part introduction to a different language regarding our relationship with our revered plant relatives and our shared environment.

Bird’s career as an educator took off 12 years ago after B.C.’s high school curriculum changed to reflect more Indigenous content. Schools began to seek her out and she started teaching about plants and herbs at elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools throughout Metro Vancouver. 

In Bird’s own words, Revered Roots was born from her “love of our winged relatives” and her “desire, purpose and commitment to bring awareness and action to protect our diminishing biodiversity, who have a right to exist,” she told Megaphone.

A common thread between these elements is the relationship people have with one another — as well as the places they inhabit. Bird continually emphasizes connection to the environment as it is, even including plants sourced from somewhere else. 

“Creating a living link to the Earth, right now, can foster a more wholesome regenerative relationship between all that exists in our diverse ecosystem — plants and people,” she said. “We are part of a web where we all live together.” 

Our place among the plants

On a perfect spring afternoon, Megaphone spoke with Bird in MacLean Park in the Strathcona neighbourhood. The idea of relationships emerged repeatedly.

“One of the many instructions of fostering this deep interconnection that emerges when we practise the exchange of reciprocity and respect for others is the responsibility we take on to contribute to a just, inclusive community; the reverence for the sacred gift of life,” said Bird thoughtfully. 

The following is an excerpt from Bird’s book under The Four Sacred Medicines, page 27 (excerpted from Revered Roots: Ancestral Teachings and Wisdom of Wild, Edible, and Medicinal Plants, copyright 2025. Published by Cool Springs Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group):

Indigenous traditions have a relationship with the plant’s “vital spirit”, who bestows their healing abilities when asked. Sacred is the celebration of life that gives up its life for our life. Sacred medicines are highly respected, linking us back in time to our ancestors and the original instructions. In “direct interrelationship between plants and people,” it is not of the past, it is also the present. As we learn about reciprocal exchange, we can ask how to navigate this deep link, to be still and listen. Our relationship with our More-Than-Human-Kin is not to treat them as commodities. It is a stewardship of agency. It is our obligation to reweave ourselves and walk in a good way and reenter the relationship. All cultures walked this way, while passing knowledge to our children. 

The passing of knowledge is an essential theme in Revered Roots. Bird is sharing her knowledge with us, but she wants us to consult other knowledge keepers before using these medicines. These can include Indigenous Elders, herbal medicine specialists and doctors.

A good example of this is found on pages 133-135, regarding St. John’s Wort, which has a long history in the treatment of depression. However, this plant interacts with pharmaceutical antidepressants and some other medicines. A patient wanting to commit to treatment with St. John’s Wort will need to consult with their doctor and an herbal specialist. It can also take up to 10 weeks to achieve the full effect. Patience is required.

Bird emphasizes our place among the plants that are present in our lives, such as dandelions. Dandelion is a European transplant with a variety of uses. Often, we kill it with herbicides. This is an example of North American settlers (mostly) ignoring what is growing right in front of them, while forgetting that dandelion is a European cultural food and medicine. 

During the nine-month writing process for Revered Roots, Bird spent a lot of time just sitting beside a sacred tobacco plant. The plant helped her keep her focus and stay rooted during this project. Bird says that in a world of labels, she might have a diagnosis of ADHD. She also acknowledges that sitting with a plant might sound “woo woo,” she said.

It is not woo woo. The book itself is evidence of that. So is the growing proof that plants can communicate with humans through chemical triggers. Plants also relate to people by how they look, feel, smell and taste.

The more than 90 plants in Revered Roots can interact with us in a wide variety of ways. By breathing them in, or smoking them; by eating them as food; in tinctures and infusions; or by distillation. Bird further emphasizes that it is best to consult experts in order to get the most out of these substances.

Revered Roots is a tribute to Bird’s collaborators, including the publisher, Quarto Publishing Group; the designer, Justin Page; illustrator Julia Alards-Tomalin; and photographer, Belinda White. 

For more information on this talented crew, and some extensive previews, see Bird’s website — loriannbird.ca. Revered Roots is a mid-sized book, which makes room to add your own comments, recipes and notes.