Nicole (she/her) introduces the Prisoner’s Herbal book and her story of how she learnt about plant medicines in prison.
Links & resources from this episode
- Prisoner’s Herbal Book
- Ukraine Herbal Solidarity
- Campaign to stop sending pregnant people to prison
- Prison Island publication
Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/
Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.
Transcript
Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast have with your host, Nicole
Nicole:Rose from the Solidarity Apothecary.
Nicole:This is your place for all things, plants and liberation.
Nicole:Let's get started.
Nicole:Hello, welcome back.
Nicole:If you're here again, then I really hope that maybe you've listened to
Nicole:the first episode of the frontline herbalism podcast and you are back
Nicole:for more, which is really exciting.
Nicole:The focus of this episode is gonna be introducing the prisoner's herbal book.
Nicole:I'm gonna be reading the introduction and the kind of section about my story of
Nicole:going to prison and learning about plants.
Nicole:The reason I wanted to kind of like start the podcast off with this is
Nicole:mainly because it's like one of the biggest parts of my work in terms
Nicole:of supporting people, experiencing state violence with herbal medicine.
Nicole:But also because if you didn't know, there's a war happening right
Nicole:now the invasion of Ukraine is.
Nicole:Horrific and affecting lots of people I love.
Nicole:And I've been very active, starting a project called Ukraine herbal solidarity.
Nicole:And I'm gonna do a standalone, like episode about the project, but
Nicole:the, the short version is we have a clinic site in Poland at a gas
Nicole:station where coaches come from.
Nicole:People like across the different borders, like the different kind of
Nicole:like border point, like border crossings with between Ukraine and Poland.
Nicole:And the coaches kind of go on their way to other places like Warsaw or Berlin.
Nicole:And they stop at this gas station and people get off and
Nicole:they have a 10 minute breather.
Nicole:They get a cup of tea.
Nicole:They, you know, maybe they get some toys for their children.
Nicole:And we have a little space where we have herbal medicine available for people.
Nicole:So Ukraine has like a really, really, really vibrant, incredible
Nicole:tradition of herbal medicine and yeah, valerian sold out, for example,
Nicole:on like day three of the invasion.
Nicole:So we have different tinctures, like valerian and skull cap and rose and
Nicole:Hawthorn and different things for like immune support, stress support,
Nicole:sleep, muscle pain Yeah, I'm already going into too many details, but
Nicole:basically I'm gonna do a separate podcast about it really, really soon.
Nicole:But at the moment, like while I'm doing that project, it's just taking
Nicole:like my absolute, like body and soul right now, we are trying to
Nicole:fundraise like thousands of pounds.
Nicole:We're making thousands of medicines.
Nicole:Everything is on a scale.
Nicole:You know, an absolutely huge scale.
Nicole:Like I'm kind of used to like broader scale medicine making,
Nicole:especially through the pandemic and working in Calais with the clinic.
Nicole:But yeah, this is just like unrelenting, huge workload.
Nicole:Which I'm a bit of a magnet towards people that know me listening to this
Nicole:will chuckle, but yeah, it's been a really incredible project, like, and.
Nicole:Yeah, I'm gonna be going to Poland super soon, but doing the kind of like series
Nicole:about the prisoner's herbal, it just gives me a bit of breathing space to then have
Nicole:time to do kind of like batch interviews.
Nicole:So meet with different people around the world.
Nicole:Like I've got a whole spreadsheet of people I'm gonna contact
Nicole:and just like fingers crossed that up for being interviewed.
Nicole:So yeah, the podcast will hopefully become kind of interesting and collective
Nicole:and engaging, like as time goes on.
Nicole:But right now I just really wanted to get it just to get it live.
Nicole:And I think the prisoners herbal is like a very special project and, you know,
Nicole:right now is like really herbal season.
Nicole:Right.
Nicole:We're in the summer.
Nicole:And all of the plants in the book are in flower.
Nicole:It's like peak time to harvest them.
Nicole:So I think to make it useful for people on the outside, they can hear about the
Nicole:book and hopefully that can encourage them to order copies for their loved
Nicole:ones in prison or for themselves.
Nicole:Yeah.
Nicole:So that's the plan.
Nicole:So I'm just gonna be kind of like reading the book.
Nicole:And then at the beginning of each episode, I'm gonna have some like
Nicole:shoutouts for different solidarity things.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:All right, here we go.
Nicole:Hello.
Nicole:The book actually starts with a dedication to my best friend,
Nicole:Sam who is still in prison.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:So it says for Sam to my best friend who is still in prison, you brought me
Nicole:joy every day in the prison gardens.
Nicole:One day you'll be free and we will, we will gather plants
Nicole:together on the outside.
Nicole:This book is dedicated to you, and I'll probably talk about Sam
Nicole:sometimes soon on the podcast.
Nicole:It's having a really hard time again now with her cancer.
Nicole:But yeah, that's in the introduction of the book, which I'm gonna read now.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:So welcome to the prisoners herbal.
Nicole:This book has been put together to create a resource for prisoners who would like to
Nicole:learn more about plants growing in prison.
Nicole:Courtyards.
Nicole:It will be distributed to prisoners around the world via supportive
Nicole:individuals and solidarity projects.
Nicole:Contains detailed descriptions of plants, the medicinal and edible
Nicole:uses how to use them and what health challenges they can support.
Nicole:There is also a section on how to use items that can be brought on
Nicole:canteen for health uses such as salt, pepper, tea powder, and more.
Nicole:So this is like the, the prison-y bit.
Nicole:When I was 21 years old, I entered one of Britain's highest security
Nicole:prisons for women and began a three and a half year prison sentence.
Nicole:This book shares stories of the relationships I built with plants
Nicole:in the prison gardens the profiles in this book highlight their edible
Nicole:medicinal and other traditional uses.
Nicole:And most importantly, how to use them in a prison context with limited access
Nicole:to resources or common medicine, making ingredients such as alcohol or oil.
Nicole:The prison where I did my sentence was a privatized prison, meaning I
Nicole:wasn't able to access the spices and the vegetables available in some UK
Nicole:prisons, but certainly not all, you know, like not all prisons have.
Nicole:This stuff, if that makes sense.
Nicole:However, I have asked friends inside to send me copies of their canteen
Nicole:sheets, and I have created a section of the book with remedies from these
Nicole:ingredients that are available.
Nicole:I also did some research into what is available in prisons in the United
Nicole:States, which seems even more limited than what I call prison island, UK.
Nicole:I.
Nicole:Just a side note, prison island UK is like a name of a report about
Nicole:prison expansion in England Wales.
Nicole:So if you didn't know, the state wanna build like 18,000 new prison
Nicole:places here because you know, prison's very effective, you know, it's like
Nicole:all, all profit driven of course.
Nicole:But anyway, I'm gonna hopefully have like a episode about prison expansion soon.
Nicole:All right.
Nicole:Back to the book.
Nicole:This is really important.
Nicole:I'm painfully aware that prisoners will all have different access to plants.
Nicole:A minority may work in the prison gardens and may even grow many more plants than
Nicole:those that are, are detailed in this book.
Nicole:However, the majority will only see a prison courtyard once a day, or even once
Nicole:a week, if they're lucky, many others still will not see the outside at all.
Nicole:Contesting with years and years of solitary confinement, for those
Nicole:that can access our courtyard and may have some grass, but more
Nicole:likely it will just be concrete.
Nicole:Hopefully with some defiant plants growing through the cracks.
Nicole:In some prisons, they actively poison all plants with the chemical spray Roundup
Nicole:to maintain a sterile environment, to further dehumanize prisoners.
Nicole:If you are a prisoner reading this, then I hope at whatever level of access you
Nicole:have, this book is interesting and useful.
Nicole:And it's really important to emphasize about the access, cuz like COVID
Nicole:has been like such a game changer.
Nicole:You know, prisoners like across England, Wales, and Scotland, I
Nicole:mean, across the world, right have been doing really extreme lengths
Nicole:of bang up, you know, look, you're looking at like 23 hours a day.
Nicole:Sometimes people don't get unlocked at all.
Nicole:If they're like short of staff, I think my friend Sam had like three or four days
Nicole:where she didn't get unlocked at all.
Nicole:And it's just absolutely horrific cuz they had, you know, the whole
Nicole:wing was shut down from COVID.
Nicole:So like slowly things are kind of like changing, but like the prison officers
Nicole:are like very happy with this new model of like constant bang up, cuz it's
Nicole:just like less work for them, even though it really harms prisoners like
Nicole:increases self harm in prisoner suicides.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:I have also organized information in an index so that you can see
Nicole:a list of common health issues and which plants are recommended.
Nicole:I thought for many people who are new to her and this can
Nicole:often be an easier way to start.
Nicole:You will also find a gloss of terms.
Nicole:I have tried to limit botanical and medical jargon as much as possible,
Nicole:but certain words are very specific in understanding actions of plants.
Nicole:So please just look up any that are not clear.
Nicole:The final pages offer a resource section with recommended books and
Nicole:herbal schools that offer distance learning programs, including one that
Nicole:Sam's course materials completely free to prisoners in solidarity.
Nicole:Nicole.
Nicole:So that program is actually with the Commonwealth herb school in Boston,
Nicole:in the so called United States.
Nicole:And they are absolutely amazing.
Nicole:They've like transcribed hundreds of hours of courses so that
Nicole:people in prison can read them.
Nicole:I think it's like not ideal in the sense that like, because
Nicole:prisoners can't watch the videos.
Nicole:It's kind of like less of, it's like not ideal as a learning experience
Nicole:to just read text and lots of people like me are dyslexic inside or have
Nicole:challenges of reading and writing.
Nicole:So we'd really like to update materials with like more photographs
Nicole:and send more like books to prisoners with textbooks, stuff like this.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:So this is like the, the next level of introduction.
Nicole:If that makes sense.
Nicole:This is, this is actually my story.
Nicole:So this is like a little bit, a little bit harder to read, but whatever,
Nicole:hopefully this is the only time I'm gonna have to read this on a mic.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:Here we go.
Nicole:When I was 21 years old, I entered one of Britain's highest security prisons for
Nicole:women called HMP Bronzefield and began a three and a half year prison sentence.
Nicole:I was sent down for conspiracy to blackmail after a 2.1 million police
Nicole:operation to repress and criminalize the grassroots campaign I was part of
Nicole:to close Europe's largest animal testing company who killed more than a hundred
Nicole:thousand animals every single day after raiding and arresting more than 32 people.
Nicole:The operation eventually put 12 of us through the courts
Nicole:and people were sentenced from between a few months to 11 years.
Nicole:I was no stranger to prison.
Nicole:However, my first boyfriend got sent down when I was just 16 years old.
Nicole:And so I had regularly visited prisons across England.
Nicole:By the time it was my turn to go through the.
Nicole:All in all.
Nicole:I just spent under two years in the prison itself and the rest under
Nicole:strict probation outside for many, this could seem like a long sentence.
Nicole:However, for many loved ones that I know inside that are serving long sentences,
Nicole:it really is not friends and comrades are serving life sentences or contemporary
Nicole:versions of them and are literally losing their whole lives to prison.
Nicole:Many do not know when or if they will ever be free.
Nicole:since getting out of prison, I have done my best to support my
Nicole:close friends that remain inside.
Nicole:And you know, like this was published in 2019, but they're still there.
Nicole:And I will put like call outs or solidarity and stuff on the podcast.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:Over many years I have witnessed their mental and physical health decline.
Nicole:As a brutality of the prison system has taken its toll from increasingly
Nicole:horrifying self harm to frequent suicide.
Nicole:Nine years into her sentence.
Nicole:My best friend Sam was diagnosed with cancer, her literal battle
Nicole:between life and death escalated due to serious medical neglect by
Nicole:the private prison that she was.
Nicole:They failed to take her to hospital appointments, failed, to communicate
Nicole:test results and completely failed with post-surgery after care,
Nicole:where she contracted infection.
Nicole:After infection, the doctors in the specialist hospital who had operated on
Nicole:her, told me that the prison had failed to bring her to over nine appointments.
Nicole:Each time they had assembled a surgical team to remove the cancerous tissues from
Nicole:her and the prison didn't even call to say that they would not bring her in.
Nicole:And you know, like just a little ad lib here, but that's like huge amount of
Nicole:pressure on the NHS, you know, like that's not just affecting Sam but that's also
Nicole:affecting other people that are waiting for like life, life saving surgery.
Nicole:And Sam actually has anal cancer.
Nicole:So it's like a very specific, rare form of cancer.
Nicole:Where they, they don't operate on it everywhere.
Nicole:So yeah, the kind of repercussions of this private prison doing that was like
Nicole:very significant for all sorts of people.
Nicole:It is an absolute miracle that she is still alive after two major operations,
Nicole:multiple MRA infection, and years of hell stress fighting for her life.
Nicole:The consultant told me if the cancer had grown by even four millimeters.
Nicole:It would've been game over.
Nicole:Yeah.
Nicole:And just to highlight, she's actually had a third third lot of surgery now
Nicole:and we're kind of waiting on her results.
Nicole:The cancer unfortunately has come back again.
Nicole:She has like a yearly checkup now.
Nicole:And yeah, it's very likely that she'll need radiotherapy soon.
Nicole:Anyway, but again, this is like another really important point now.
Nicole:So for people reading this in prison, you will not be surprised you'll
Nicole:have witnessed and most likely experienced medical neglect yourself.
Nicole:You all have been in pain and been unable to access painkillers or seen
Nicole:people begging for medical attention, completely ignored by prison officers.
Nicole:When I was in prison, a girl even miscarried and was left alone to bleed
Nicole:out in her cell before being unlocked the next day, it is in part because of
Nicole:this intense medical neglect that I feel motivated to put together this book.
Nicole:Herbalism is incredibly empowering because plants give us the opportunity
Nicole:to actively care for our own health.
Nicole:Without fighting an authority.
Nicole:We all know that everything is a fight in prison.
Nicole:Likewise prison food is awful and wild plants can supplement industrial
Nicole:diets, bringing desperately needed vitamin and minerals to our bodies.
Nicole:More than anything.
Nicole:Learning about plants is fun.
Nicole:They become familiar friends and help counter the loneliness of imprison.
Nicole:When I got sent down, I was expecting to be totally removed from nature.
Nicole:But I remember when I entered the prison and first got processed, that's kind
Nicole:of like when they like book you in, in reception and counting your belongings and
Nicole:make you an ID card and stuff like this.
Nicole:But yeah, I remember that first night where I was taken across
Nicole:the main courtyard to the house block where the newcomers go.
Nicole:And I looked down and I could see dandelions pushing through the concrete.
Nicole:I could see mag pies and crows on the prison, walls and fences.
Nicole:I knew that I would find comfort in witnessing this world resistance.
Nicole:And this book captures these memories and experiences after several
Nicole:months of bang up and working in the gym, waiting to get my security
Nicole:clearance for a job in the gardens.
Nicole:I finally got the slip under my door that I'd been assigned
Nicole:to work in the garden party.
Nicole:It's not actually a party.
Nicole:It's just like it's just like the team of people that work in the garden.
Nicole:I dunno why they call it party.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:This meant I could work outside with a small crew of other girls.
Nicole:Most of the labor dare I say, all of it was completely monotonous removing the
Nicole:weeds that I'd love from beds or paths or in my case, pretending to weed them and
Nicole:always leaving the roots in the ground.
Nicole:So they regrow literally did that every time move lines or mowing the grass.
Nicole:Occasionally, we would do more interesting tasks, like finally planting up a
Nicole:vegetable garden in the main courtyard, as well as building a veg patch and
Nicole:herb garden in the new garden of the mother and baby unit of the prison.
Nicole:That's right.
Nicole:They literally lock up mothers and their babies and then they take their
Nicole:babies off them and keep them in prison.
Nicole:And it is absolutely awful.
Nicole:And actually there's been a campaign because I don't
Nicole:know if it's one or two, but.
Nicole:Yeah, I think maybe two babies have like died in that prison since I've left.
Nicole:And yeah, it was absolutely horrific.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:The courtyards were mostly small triangular concrete yards with a triangle
Nicole:of grass in the middle, but amidst the grass were some of my favorite plants
Nicole:such as yarrow and Daisy in the main courtyard, there were ornamental roses.
Nicole:So many that when we had to prune them all in the winter, I got really bad RSI
Nicole:in my wrist from working in the cold and cutting them back in these roses.
Nicole:I found mineral rich plants like chickweed and dandelion too.
Nicole:Another job we had was clearing areas near the inside perimeter fences,
Nicole:this mostly involved strimming curbs or pulling plants out of the gravel.
Nicole:It was here that I encountered plants like mallow and plantain
Nicole:who loved the sandy to soil.
Nicole:Of course, I was not allowed to take plants back to my room.
Nicole:So began a daily adventure of how, how the hell to smuggle things back.
Nicole:We were searched after every shift on the gardens party, which
Nicole:involved a packed down by an.
Nicole:I learned all manner of tricks of putting leaves in my bra or underwear, carrying
Nicole:them in my gloves or doing a bit of a slight of hand before being searched.
Nicole:If I had a library appointment after being in the garden, it would
Nicole:mean I could even smuggle plants around, press someone into my books.
Nicole:Fortunately, I think officers suspected I wasn't a drug user because
Nicole:of what I'd been sent down for.
Nicole:So they didn't search me as vigilantly as folks they suspected were trading
Nicole:or passing drugs around the prison.
Nicole:Little, did they know that I'd often take herbs back from my friends on
Nicole:the wing or make them cups of tea when they had period pains or tummy cramps.
Nicole:Other than bringing things back to my room.
Nicole:I'd also just eat plants there.
Nicole:And then when I was weed, my pallet became adapted to the
Nicole:more bitter taste of wild plants.
Nicole:When we built the vegetable gardens in the main courtyard, I asked the prison
Nicole:officer in charge of the garden party.
Nicole:If we could grow some rocket, this plant is so nutritious, full of
Nicole:vitamin and minerals, including zinc and vitamins, a B six C and K it's.
Nicole:It is also super easy to germinate.
Nicole:It spreads everywhere.
Nicole:I soon did some guerilla planting where I would take the seeds and spread them
Nicole:the various courtyards of the prison to maintain my supply of fresh greens.
Nicole:And so that others could access them too.
Nicole:If only more of the prisoners knew what they were and that you can eat them.
Nicole:In addition to working in the prison gardens, I was also incredibly lucky
Nicole:to access some financial support from a charity to undertake a distance
Nicole:learning course in horticulture and permaculture design, as well as a short
Nicole:distance learning course in herbalism.
Nicole:It sounds so cheesy to write this, but these courses really did change my life.
Nicole:On release.
Nicole:I learned to grow on a bigger scale and have now taught hundreds of other low
Nicole:income families to learn how to grow food.
Nicole:The workers cooperative that I started has multiple community gardens, a mushroom
Nicole:farm wildflower park, forest garden, more as well as a four and a half acre
Nicole:permaculture project where I now live.
Nicole:I'm sadly not involved in the workers' co-op anymore.
Nicole:Which is called feed Avalon, but yeah, it was definitely life changing
Nicole:experience to be involved in it.
Nicole:And it's like amazing that they're still going strong.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:My passion for herbal medicine has only grown over time.
Nicole:And in 2018, I decided to apply to train as a clinical herbalist, scared
Nicole:that my conviction would be a barrier.
Nicole:I finally found a school that that did not discriminate.
Nicole:And so I am now halfway through a four year training.
Nicole:Meaning that soon I will be able to soon, I will be able to more
Nicole:proactively help people with their health by accessing herbal medicines.
Nicole:I also started the solidarity apothecary project, which you can read more about
Nicole:at the back of the book, the herbal medicine course that I studied in prison
Nicole:as incredibly inspiring and interesting as it was made herbalism feel abstract
Nicole:for me in the context I was in, I could never make any of the things that the
Nicole:assignment suggested, whether it was tin teachers or salves or ointment.
Nicole:likewise, most or nearly all the plants they included were
Nicole:unavailable to me at the time.
Nicole:Therefore, I wanted to write this herbal book as a way of bringing
Nicole:herbalism alive to people in prison.
Nicole:I know that many people will still read these pages and feel an intense heartache
Nicole:because of these plants are still out of reach to them like the ingredients in the
Nicole:canteen section, which I would've killed to have access to when I was in prison.
Nicole:But I hope for everyone that there is at least one plant there that
Nicole:calls to them, which they can find.
Nicole:Connecting with plants in prison is not just about making medicine is about
Nicole:friendship is about contending with the isolation, despair, trauma, and violence
Nicole:is something alive and beautiful.
Nicole:A part of, one of the tattoo sleeves on my arm reads never alone.
Nicole:I got it before I got sent down because I wanted to remind
Nicole:myself that I am not alone.
Nicole:During years of state repression, I felt isolated and betrayed by the movement.
Nicole:I grew up in.
Nicole:I felt like any grassroots or revolutionary struggle to change
Nicole:things was ultimately weaker than those in power and control.
Nicole:I felt small and vulnerable, but plants reminded me every
Nicole:day that they're on our side.
Nicole:All the plants, animals, and ecosystems in the world want recovery.
Nicole:They want freedom.
Nicole:They want health.
Nicole:And with them as allies, we are never alone.
Nicole:I would therefore encourage people, not just to make things with the
Nicole:plants they find or use them for health ailments, but to try and make friends
Nicole:with plants in the herbal world.
Nicole:They're commonly called plant allies.
Nicole:I've written a whole section about this.
Nicole:What about what this means in practice?
Nicole:The short version is that we can build friendships with plants by simply
Nicole:hanging out with them, sitting with them and drawing them and tasting them.
Nicole:I know so many of my friends like rinse me for stuff like this.
Nicole:Like laughing at me for talking to plants and stuff.
Nicole:But yeah, like, you know, it was just like how you got roll, right.
Nicole:Anyway.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:In prison, I used to sleep with a dandelion under my pillow.
Nicole:It made me feel safer.
Nicole:It literally made me feel grounded before I had many herbal books or
Nicole:what worked through my coursework.
Nicole:I would have vivid dreams about plants.
Nicole:I dreamed once about plantain talking to me and telling me it was
Nicole:useful for woundage before looking up in a book that it was one of
Nicole:the best plants to apply to wounds.
Nicole:I would make a mini Altar under my bed with dry plants from the garden
Nicole:and bring it out after bangup as something that made me feel comforted.
Nicole:As we all know in prison, it only lasted as long as the next cell
Nicole:search, but the process of creating that sacred space was so valuable to
Nicole:me, the relationships with plants that we build, they stay with us for life.
Nicole:Every time I'm driving to a prison visit stressed about being late or anxious
Nicole:about the intensity of what might happen.
Nicole:I pull up at a motorway services and see a patch of dandelions.
Nicole:I feel strengthened when I get bitten by a spider at a gig.
Nicole:I know which plants to look for in the city streets, outside the venue.
Nicole:Each time I see yarrow now, I feel like I've bumped into an old friend.
Nicole:This stuff probably sounds mega hippyish, but is the truth.
Nicole:Once you become familiar with different plants, the familiarity
Nicole:and comfort never goes.
Nicole:I hope that this book can be the start of a journey that you can continue
Nicole:and deepen for the rest of your life.
Nicole:Creating a relationship with the world inside and out can sustain
Nicole:us in live in the darkest moments.
Nicole:All right.
Nicole:So that's, that's the first chapter.
Nicole:Next I'm gonna talk about like actually preparing plant medicines in prison and
Nicole:a little bit about kind of herbal actions and how the plant profiles are structured.
Nicole:And then, yeah, we're just gonna do like a big, deep dive into, into all
Nicole:of the, all of the herbs from the book.
Nicole:So, yeah, it's gonna be really exciting and yeah, once again,
Nicole:like, please just contact me for stuff you wanna plug on the podcast.
Nicole:I mean, I can't imagine I have many listeners listeners right now.
Nicole:Like I said, it is probably me and like six queers of Instagram,
Nicole:but yeah, if you can share it and support the show in some way, I would
Nicole:like really appreciate it and yeah.
Nicole:Okay.
Nicole:Take care of everyone.
Nicole:Thanks so much for listening to the frontline herbalism podcast, you
Nicole:can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the show at
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