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Making Spruce Gum Tea

Secondary

Description

The purpose of this activity is to show students how to harvest spruce gum and make  it into a traditional medicine tea that can be used to relieve colds and maintain good health.  Students will be outdoors in an area with spruce trees to learn how to harvest spruce gum from the trees using either a sharp tool or their hands. Students will have the chance to explore their surroundings and identify trees that have spruce gum on them, which can vary from tree to tree. This hands-on learning experience requires at least an hour on-site, allowing students sufficient time to find and collect enough spruce gum to make tea with it afterward.

Students will:

  • explore different areas during a medicine walk and identify trees that have spruce gum on them
  • appreciate the importance of offering tobacco or a gift to the land before harvesting
  • explore different methods of harvesting spruce gum - using tools or your hands
  • prepare the spruce gum into a medicine, and understand the significance of spruce gum as an Indigenous traditional medicine and how it is used
  • reclaim teachings that were once lost during colonization, and pass on the teachings to future generations.

To enhance the learning, students can access the Gwich’in resource for Spruce Gum. This resource provides background information on how to use spruce gum as well as how to harvest it. It includes the Gwich'in language and the different ways the Gwich'in people use spruce trees.

General Assessment

Recommendation of how and where to use it

This activity can be spread out over several days or units. It is suitable for an Indigenous Studies class and can also be integrated into health and science courses to explore the significance of traditional medicines within Indigenous communities. For this lesson, you will need access to an area with spruce trees. This may pose a challenge for classes in urban or city environments; however, it is still possible with some planning, such as organizing a field trip. To find a suitable location for harvesting spruce gum, it is best to consult a local Elder or someone knowledgeable about the territory in your area.

Relevant Curriculum Units

The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.

Themes Addressed

Ecosystems (1)

  • Appreciating the Natural World

Indigenous Knowledge (2)

  • Etuaptmumk/Two-Eyed Seeing
  • TEK -- Traditional Ecological Knowledge

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