Forging and Photography — A Learning Combination
Band members and other community members who participated in a foraging and photography workshop this summer celebrated their success on September 9 with an exhibition of their work at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum.
Bringing photography and foraging together in one class was the brainchild of Colleen McKinney of the Public Health Department, who had worked with ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk on previous workshops and knew photographer Della Nohl from childhood. Colleen had help from Cyndy Rudolph of Onamia Community Education as well as Brittany Wind and her staff in the Mille Lacs Band Grants Department.
Linda is an ethnobotanist specializing in teaching about culturally important plants and their uses as food, medicine, and materials. A former employee of the Mille Lacs DNR, she has written for numerous publications and is the author of “Watoto Unyutapi,“ a field guide to edible wild plants of the Dakota people. Linda currently serves as the Food Sovereignty Coordinator at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, and spends her free time with her husband and three sons, who are all citizens of the Oceti Sakowin.
Della Nohl (Anishinaabe) is a fine arts educator who has guided students and workshop participants in the art of documenting their surroundings through photography. Della has worked as a photojournalist, stills photographer for an award-winning feature film shot on the Onondaga Nation, contract photographer for Indian Artist magazine, and an exhibiting artist best known for her photographic weaves. Della is currently working on anthotypes, a photographic process using plant-based emulsions.
This activity was made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the East Central Regional Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Additional funding came from Minnesota Department of Health SHIP and Tribal Tobacco grants.
Bringing a photographer’s eye to the medicine gathering process helped the students focus on the unique characteristics of each plant, and the emphasis on plant identification meant plenty of beautiful subject matter for the photography students to practice their art.
Band member Chandell Boyd was initially drawn to the botany — but she discovered a new skill and interest. “I saw the flyer for the plant walk, but I liked taking photos, too,“ she said. “That was my favorite part.“
Joanna Hill is a long-time forager who also found the photography interesting. “I loved it,“ she said. “Being in the woods and learning about native plants is my favorite thing. I hope they have more opportunities like this in the future.“
The group met initially at the Rice Lake Federal Wildlife Refuge in District II in July for a plant walk and an introduction to photography.
In August, they reconvened at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park for more photography training and another plant walk, followed by a session at the computer lab at Nay Ah Shing High School for photo editing and selection.
The next day, some students from the Reservation joined Linda in another plant walk and Della as she presented information on photography and told stories about her career and experiences as an Indigenous photographer.
The September exhibition included photos from all the participants and featured a talk by Linda and Della where they pointed out the botanical and photographic elements of each picture on display.
Vicki Kroschel said it was the highlight of her summer to learn about all the medicinal plants in the woods.
Rylea Durbin and Dallas Behnke work with the youth in Chiminising through the Ge-niigaanizijig program. They loved learning about photography and plant ID.
“Della was supportive as heck,“ said Rylea. Dallas agreed. “She was a big inspiration.“
