Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science

by Jessica Hernandez

The Western sciences teach us that invasive plants are pests, unwanted, or do not belong in this landscape. However, to us, invasive plants are displaced like many of us. They were forced from their native lands and like many of us had to adapt to a new environment. Like banana trees, we are forced to uproot ourselves from our native lands and have to adapt to new environments. Some invasive species have thrived so well that many folks think they are native species because of the abundance of them in many landscapes. While not forgetting the negative impacts they do have on some environments, some of our Indigenous communities have learned how to live with them.