5. Reciprocity with Herbs: Alyson Maier on Herbal Education

We have Alyson Maier from Green Heart Herbals as our very first interviewee on The Elder Tree podcast.  Alyson is a shamanic, naturopathic and herbal practitioner in the Glasshouse Mountains, QLD.  She is also an author and teacher, and runs a myriad of courses, workshops and classes.  I was very excited to interview Alyson as she is a great source of inspiration and supportive energy for me and for The Elder Tree.  She is passionate about grassroots herbalism and about creating symbiotic relationships with other herbalists in Australia. In this interview, Alyson shares some deep wisdom on living in reciprocity with the earth, treating herbal medicine not as a commodity, allowing plants to become your family and about how knowledge belongs to the people.  We talk about co-creating a movement together rather than just purely servicing our communities  and about the importance of passing on traditional knowledge through story.  I uncover her motivations for being a herbal educator, about how knowledge is the medicine that we are giving as educators and about how sharing her wisdom gives her such heart expanding joy! In our talk, we discuss Estuary Learning, a wonderful not-for-profit organisation of which we are both members.  Estuary Learning is a collective that has been created for herbal educators, mentors and practitioners.  It is an empowering co-supportive space for plant medicine workers from around Australia and if you haven't yet seen what we are up to then check out our website at:  www.estuarylearning.org.au. This has been such a wonderful interview,  I feel as though I could talk for hours and hours with Alyson and revel in her deep wisdom and breadth of knowledge.  I love what she shares about humans being a part of nature and her dreams for the future of herbal medicine in Australia.  One that we are all creating together! Go to www.greenheartherbals.com/events to find out about Alyson's upcoming events and workshops. Alyson also has an online 6-week course teaching people to grow their own herbal medicine garden.  Find out more at: www.greenheartherbals.com/how-to-grow-your-own-medicinal-herb-garden To find out more about The Elder Tree visit the website at www.theeldertree.org and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here. You can also follow The Elder Tree on Facebook and Instagram and sign up to the newsletter. Find out more about this podcast and the presenters here. Get in touch with The Elder Tree at:  [email protected] The intro and outro song is "Sing for the Earth" and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.  You can find Chad's music here and here.