Tłı̨chǫ Arts launches new line of tea and fireweed syrup

Shoppers at this weekend’s Tłı̨chǫ Arts Holiday Sale and Showcase can be among the first to try a new tea and a brand of fireweed syrup.

For years, the Tłı̨chǫ Government has developed foraging programs that teach residents in the four Tłı̨chǫ communities how to harvest and use the resources offered by the land around them.

Over the past year, wild plants harvested in the Tłı̨chǫ region have been turned into a tea blend devised with input from Elders, named Whaèhdǫǫ̀ Lıdì – Tea of Our Ancestors.

A fireweed blossom syrup, Gò K’ítì, is also being unveiled at the weekend holiday sale, which takes place at Yellowknife’s Chateau Nova Hotel.

Both products are available online, too.

Chief of Behchokǫ̀ Clifford Daniels described the items as “foraged on Tłı̨chǫ lands and made by Tłı̨chǫ hands.”

Laughing Lichen, a farm and learning centre that manufactures products from wild ingredients at a base along the Ingraham Trail north of Yellowknife, helped to establish programs and internships devoted to creating the tea and syrup.

Giselle Marion, director of client services for the Tłı̨chǫ Government, said the initiative has already created jobs and more could follow.

“We’re hoping that this pilot project can turn into a seasonal work placement and internships, and also long-term foraging programs for the community members, so we can bring that kind of education and knowledge back into the way of life that we currently have,” Marion told Cabin Radio.

“We worked really closely with our partner, Laughing Lichen, which developed the internships for us and also the educational aspect of that. It’s very helpful for us to develop that program in conjunction with the Tłı̨chǫ way of life.”

Laughing Lichen’s owner, Amy Maund, said she believes foraging for wild plants and manufacturing products from them can become a sustainable source of employment.

“There’s an interest and a demand for it, and it will promote the local economy a lot. It’s just a really positive impact,” Maund said.

“The people that came out this summer to help forage and train and work, they loved it. It was all people that didn’t have other employment.

“In addition to the foraging we talked about safe plants to harvest, medicinal uses of the plants growing around us when we were out on the land, and sustainable practices like how to forage them respectfully. There were offerings made at the beginning of every harvest day with an Elder. It was all done really respectfully and with a lot of positivity.”

One of the foragers and one of the interns who worked on the products will be at the weekend holiday sale, helping to serve them to shoppers. The sale itself boasts more than 30 artists from all four Tłı̨chǫ communities and Yellowknife.

“I’m extremely pleased and so happy for the team, because it’s a team effort. They all had to get it here,” said Marion.

“It’s great to show that teamwork to make it happen and bring the product to life, and to understand the vision behind the product, which is to create a sustainable economy around our way of life.”

More about the products

“The tea is a blend of all the wild plants that we gathered this summer with Tłı̨chǫ citizens,” said Maund.

Ingredients include Labrador tea, dried blueberries, dried cloudberries, dried raspberries, raspberry leaves, fireweed leaves, fireweed blossom and cloudberry leaves.

The ingredients came from Stagg River, Mosquito Creek and the vicinity of Tower Hill.

Marion described the fireweed blossom syrup as “a bonus” that came out of the process to create the tea.

The syrup is advertised as being perfect with club soda or with bannock, cake and other treats. Its ingredients include sugar, fireweed blossoms and lemon juice.

“The recipe was created with some of the Tłı̨chǫ youth that did an internship at our farm this summer. I think we had to do like five different test runs before it was perfect,” said Maund.

She added that one reason for developing the product is the availability of fireweed in the region. The species is renowned for, and gets its name from, its abundance in the burn areas left behind by wildfires.

“It’s very sustainable in the Tłı̨chǫ region,” Maund said.

“There are fires every year. Where the fires occurred this year, for the succeeding 10 years you’re going to have fireweed growing.”