The beloved Anarcho Herbane Kollektiv recently published their translation of the Prisoners Herbal in Italian. You can purchase the ebook here: https://solidarityapothecary.org/product/erbario-anticarcerario/
It is a fundraiser for prisoners. You can buy physical copies in Italy for 6 euros from anarchoherbanekollektiv@autistiche.org
The Italian comrades wrote in their introduction to the book:
“Multiple complicities have intertwined around this text: the translation of The Prisoner’s Herbal is the result of a collective process of comrades from various regions and collectives in Italy, who joined forces in mutual support to translate, revise, design, disseminate and print this text, united by a passion for herbalism, self-care and the anti-prison struggle. When we came across this book and the Solidarity Apothecary project, we immediately felt a very strong affinity with the author and what she writes, and this allowed us to get in touch, get to know each other and create a beautiful new network of comrades.
We hope that this book can go beyond the walls and reach the prisoners: that it can be a solidarity tool for prisoners, that can support them in dealing with the everyday life of the prison environment, to support the sensory deprivation, isolation, trauma and violence to which they are subjected. We also hope that this book will be an impetus for all to learn about the most important aspects of prison life.
We also hope that this book can be an impulse for everyone to learn about plants, traditions and herbal knowledge that have now been lost, and to reflect on how we can self-determine and self-manage our health.
Without wishing to deny or judge the use of ‘official’ medicine, it seems important to us to also stimulate reflection on the control that health power has over us and our bodies, which, in an intersectional way, are potential territories of resistance to colonisation, repression and normalisation by the Techno-Fascist and Capitalist State.
This book is important not only because it is full of useful information on the most common plants and the simple but powerful remedies that can be obtained with them, but also because it shares this information in an accessible and concrete way, also highlighting the direct or indirect impact of violence of the state on our bodies/organisations or mind-body systems.
In fact, Nicole describes remedies for everyday ailments and health problems, such as hypertension, infections and wounds, but also gives us advice on how to treat stress, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which many hope – especially those who suffer or attempt to rebel against forms of oppression and those living in the dehumanising environment of prison. The prisoner’s herbal makes available to all vital information, often denied to those who are locked up.
Within a prison system that seeks to deprive people of their freedom, this book helps to recover the knowledge to self-manage our health and does so from the point of view of an anti-speciesist sensibility, in order to connect us with the plants around us and draw strength from them, while shares with us the knowledge and ability to take care of ourselves and others. It is precisely this last aspect that highlights the potential of mutual care, mutual support and practical solidarity, as tools that concrete reinforcement of the resistance of the individualities that from within the walls (and outside) constantly struggle against domination.
…We hope this book will be an inspiration to you, a source of strength and resistance, like weeds, which manage to break through walls and grow and resist in the most impervious places.”
