Nancy Turner focuses on the plants that provided heat, shelter, transportation, clothing, clothing, nets, ropes, and containers -- the necessities of life for First Peoples in B.C. and adjacent territories. She also shows how plant materials were effectively used in many other ways, such as for decoration and ornamentation, as scents, cleansing agents, and insect repellents, and for recreational activities.
Over the millennia, the First Peoples have become highly skilled in the arts of working with plant materials. Turner describes more than 100 plants, their various uses and their importance in the material cultures of First Nations. Each description has a colour photograph of the plant to aid in its identification.
