LoriAnn Bird is an Indigenous Métis herbalist and educator with a deep knowledge of wild, medicinal and edible plants that grow in everyday spaces. Through LoriAnn’s eyes, our immediate surroundings take on a new life and offer a wealth of untapped nutritional and ecological resources.
LoriAnn’s vision is to continually co-create insightful dialogues, to remediate and reconcile with our Indigenous plants as we reintroduce them into our urban landscapes. By sharing and growing these practices, communities can access our true local foods and medicines, which support collective resilience and deep ecological healing for all species.
As a refugee of the Red River Metis Nation, born and raised on the Coast Salish lands, LoriAnn is deeply grateful to live, play and create primarily on the unceded & traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples – xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
LoriAnn’s vision is to continually co-create insightful dialogues, to remediate and reconcile with our Indigenous plants as we reintroduce them into our urban landscapes. By sharing and growing these practices, communities can access our true local foods and medicines, which support collective resilience and deep ecological healing for all species.
As a refugee of the Red River Metis Nation, born and raised on the Coast Salish lands, LoriAnn is deeply grateful to live, play and create primarily on the unceded & traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples – xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
Her Approach
LoriAnn inspires learners of all generations and backgrounds to communicate with the natural world. She guides us to recognize the wisdom of ancestral relations who—for many thousands of years—were nourished by this land and cared deeply for its fate.
LoriAnn asks us to live more consciously on the ancient lands where our cities now stand, and to recognize the beneficial impacts of
connecting our human experience of mind and body to nature. By
learning from all of our ancestors and caring for the many generations of beings to come, we can now build a future of sovereignty and best practices for healing the Earth and all her living creatures. LoriAnn sees that we are all Indigenous to the Earth, and as caretakers this is the most sane yet radical response to today’s ecological and humanitarian crises.
In a time when our connection to the lands where we live grows ever more tenuous, LoriAnn offers us an opportunity to reconnect.
Learning and Teaching Experiences
Farm2School Project
LoriAnn has collaborated with the Provincial Health Association of BC (PHABC), helping to incorporate Indigenous teachings into the
curriculum. Through the Farm2School pilot project, Lori supported the development of nine Indigenous foodscapes on elementary and secondary school grounds in Vancouver.
Community Gardens & Centres
LoriAnn has collaborated with the Vancouver Parks Board, Douglas Community College, VanDusen Botanical Garden, Village Vancouver, and many community gardens and centres in and around Vancouver.
InHarmony InNature Collective
In 2022, LoriAnn and her dear friend Laura Cisneros founded InHarmony InNature Collective to reclaim and share ancient arts, like dreaming, the cosmos, moon cycle gardening, medicine making and more.
Earth Awareness through Health & Company
LoriAnn created Earth Awareness Realized Through Health and Company in 2013, to share First People’s perspectives on wild, edible and medicinal plants. Her practices include plant identification walks, illustration and plant medicine workshops, homemade products for the skin, consulting on garden design, and public speaking.
And More…
LoriAnn stewarded a medicine wheel garden at the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre and worked with the David Suzuki Foundation as a Butterfly Ranger, consulting with both the foundation and the YWCA at Evelyn Crabtree on native plants and their importance in our ecological relationship with other living beings. She was, along with Laura Cisneros, the Artists in Residence at Hastings Community Centre for 2020-2022, offering the teachings of plant wisdom through various art mediums.
She has connected with the Vancouver TED Talk participants in 2017, and has also shared her expertise with university initiatives such as UBC Farm, SFU Embark Gardens, and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Bra, Italy.
LoriAnn Bird 