Cheri Williams

I am Anishinaabe. I am Gunflint Lake Ojibwe and an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior. I am a mother, auntie, grandmother, and wife. For most of my life I have been gardening. While I come from parents and grandparents of rich subsistence hunting, fishing, farming and gardening in present day Northern Minnesota and Arkansas, I now live and grow my gardens on a piece of land along the American River Canyon, on the ancestral lands of the Nisenan (Maidu) people.

I am an interdisciplinary artist. My mediums are primarily sewing projects using upcycled fabrics (;) ribbon work appliqué (;) Indigenous agriculture and sustainable food practices with family subsistence gardens and plant based culinary arts. The area of focus right now in my practice is creating intentional healing products with seasonal botanical combinations: luxurious salves made in small batches with organic craft cannabis and native plants and flowers. Through these mediums I am interested in enriching life through plant medicine, based on Anishinaabe knowledge and an integrated practice of land-based arts and ecology.

To make my salves, I work with many native plants. Combining them with sun grown organic and carefully curated cannabis. I started this journey five years ago with a single plant. Now, as my garden of foods grow alongside them, I learn that cannabis are beautiful and very responsive to the care given to them. I am always practicing and learning more about restorative agriculture and the many ways that I can combine other plants and flowers with healing properties, especially for our Native communities.