SENAQWILA WYSS
cease demonstrating how to inoculate mushrooms spores into a log on a foldable table in harmony garden. thre are a group of three people observing her, everyone is outside under a tent in the rain
Senaqwila and Cease Wyss raised money through the Squamish Language and Cultural department, the First Nations Health Authority, a small donation through the North Vancouver Montessori School, and Looking at the Garden Fence. They provided community members with indigenous plants to grow their own food forests; and gave children and youth gift cards towards purchasing rain gear and some basic gardening tools. They also inoculated logs with mushroom spores to start growing edible and medicinal wild mushrooms in their gardens.

This event is the first of what they hope will be many more like it to increase indigenous permaculture teachings, indigenous forest plant awareness, and to address the climate change issues and concerns our community is facing.
Swipe left for more images →
a dozen people standing outside in the rain under tents and umberallas. everyone is listening to the welcome song by Frances who is seated on a motorized chair in an orange shirt with a drum in his hand.
Frances singing a song to welcome everyone to Harmony Garden.
 sandwiches cut in half, grapes, bananas, cookies, cheese, cucumbers laid out for guests to nourish themselves on a picnic bench group of 6 people huddled around a picnic bench outdoors in the rain, under a tent. there are lots of cups and food and dirty ladles and everyone is eating and drinking tea a group of people gathered in the middle of harmony community garden. there are raised planter beds around the people and lots of small pots of plants. people are choosing ones to take away
Plant giveaway of indigenous plants from Maple Hill Farms.
 a bowl of chillies and squash, a bowl of garlic cloves and two flats of homemade preserves laid out on the table
Heather made grape juice from the vine at Harmony Garden. & chillies and garlic harvested, all to share.
 three figures standing in the rain, cease wyss in a cowichan sweater and rubber boots in the foreground holding a tray of mushroom growing kits with a big smile on her face. everyone is standing outside on a brick path in a garden
Cease showing the mycelium plugs used to inoculate the logs.
 view of a dozen rectangular plastic buckets with wrapped garden equipment inside
Giveaway baskets.
an elementary school aged child and adult on a pile of garden mulch, shovelling the mulch into wheelbarrows
Lily and Heather mulching the new garlic patch.
 kids and adults gathered around cease who has mushroom growing kits in front of her. they are listening to her speak. group of people huddled around in the rain under umbrellas choosing plants in pots
Cease demonstrating the mycelium inoculation.
 early fall at harmony garden raised beds with some cold resistant greens, rotting husk of corn, trees in the background with yellow leaves close up of a log that has been drilled a hole, then inoculated with mushroom spores, and then sealed with beeswax
Mushroom spore inoculated wood.
 an elementary school age and a kindergarten school age child shovelling mulch into a wheelbarrow
Lily and Kamaya helping with mulching.
 large group of people under a tent outdoors huddled together. everyone is interacting. the tables are full of food and gift baskets
Senaqwila Wyss ↗ is Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), Tsimshian, Sto:lo, Hawaiian and Swiss. She holds a Bachelors of the Arts Degree in the faculty of Communications, Arts and Technology, minor in First Nations Studies. She also holds a First Nations Languages Proficiency Certificate in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim, and is pursuing her diploma in furthering her fluency and proficiency in the Squamish language. She and her husband are raising their 4 year old daughter, and adopted her 8 year old niece, to be first language speakers, which has not been done in her family four generations after colonial impacts, also learning his Líl̓wat Ucwalmicwts language. She practices ethnobotany with traditionally trained mom Cease Wyss with indigenous plant medicines. Senaqwila was raised learning these ancestral teachings and uses plants as teas, medicines, tinctures and ceremony. Her children are being raised with these medicines as well.