The maskwi or white birch tree has been used by Mi’kmaq people forever. The bark is used to create shelters, vessels for transportation, utensils, containers, art work and clothing. Birch sap can be boiled down to make a syrup similar to that obtained from maple trees. Teas, medicines, food (birch bark flour from the inner bark is something I really want to try baking with!) and, of course, burning the logs for a warming, cooking or ceremonial fire. Nothing is wasted, everything is respected and shared.
There are many maskwi on the land around our house. Many are now over 60 years old and a good size for harvesting birch bark to be used for making matues (porcupine) quill art, which is what friends of mine did in 2021.
I’m going to track the regeneration of the trees that were first harvested in July 2021 with the hope that other settlers will reach out in friendship and reconciliation to Indigenous people in their area and offer the trees on the land they occupy for a similar purpose. I live on unceded Mi’kmaq land, and this is the way our forest should have always looked.
