PLANTS | SADIE OLSEN | A LIFESTYLE, NOT A CAUSE

Young & Indigenous

We continue our PLANTS series with Sadie Olsen, a proud member of the Lummi Nation. Sadie is also a co-founder of Whiteswan Environmental (WE), an Indigenous led 501(c)(3) whose mission is to support community healing through the natural, cultural and historical restoration to the Salish Sea for 7th generation sustainability as a measure of ecological health protection for all. Sadie shares about how WE utilizes plants for programs and tools such as their Field to Classroom Program Curriculum, Digital Ecological Mapping, Stewardship Corps, 13 Moons Food Sovereignty, and Indigenous Public Health. Sadie also gives the audience insight on her own personal experience with plants and how these amazing beings helped her in a time and place where there were no other options. Sadie Olsen is known for her advocacy for the environment, her passion for revitalization of the traditional language of the Lummi People and traditional ways of being. Learning from her elders how to weave cedar and wool and learning about the ecological knowledge which has been passed down, Sadie hopes to help reestablish ancient values in these territories as well as pass on this knowledge to the next generations. Sadie says “I don’t like being called an activist, because for me it is just a way of life.”