Resources:
Lee Van Roth's Feature Article: New Ypsi farmers and gardeners added to library’s oral history project
Ypsilanti Farmers & Gardeners Oral History Project
Transcription:
Lee Van Roth: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. The Ypsi Farmers and Gardeners Oral History Project is continuing to grow, preserving the stories and experiences of local food growers and gardeners in a digital archive at the Ypsilanti District Library. The newest additions to the collection include 11 new stories from local growers, including one from Shalina Rankin, the founder of Fiery Maple Wholistic Healing, whose work as an herbalist and natural health advocate is rooted in a family history of healing and a lifelong connection to growing food and working with the land. Today, Shalina is here to talk about her work, her family's influence on that work, and what it means to contribute her story to this oral history project. Shalina, thank you so much for being here today!
Shalina Rankin: I'm happy to be here! Thank you, Lee!
Lee Van Roth: So, I'd love to start with some of your work specifically, looking at this business that you run, Fiery Maple Wholistic Healing, and I'd love to learn a little bit more about what an herbalist does, particularly here with the resources you have here in Ypsi.
Shalina Rankin: Oh, yes! Well, mostly, I help people who would like to address their health concerns with herbs and natural remedies. And what's so interesting is being in this work now for several years, it really is kind of a lifestyle shift. So, a lot of what I'm doing is also just coaching people and encouraging them and helping them to make permanent lifestyle changes to really support their health, because most herbalists, after they've been in the field for a while, kind of start to see that if you're just kind of suggesting vitamins and herbs and minerals in place of pharmaceuticals, it's kind of the same mentality of just like throwing an herb or a pill at it, as opposed to how can we go most upstream and adjust anything that we can to mitigate the problems or if we can permanently solve them by a change in lifestyle.
Lee Van Roth: And these are skills, and it sounds like a mindset that came from, or in part at least, from your family and growing up with a similar mindset when it comes to healing and medicine. Can you tell us a little bit about where those connections kind of play into your work?
Shalina Rankin: Oh yeah! Sure! Thank you for bringing that up. It's so funny because I think that we can always think that we just kind of get these ideals from ourselves, and we just kind of pop up fully formed. But I realized that it was after years of studying this myself that I'm surrounded by herbalists in my family, even though they wouldn't necessarily call themselves that. It's just how we grew up is our first response to any ailment would be a tea or an herb or a folk remedy. So, it really was a lifestyle. Even thinking about my aunt, who would never call herself an herbalist, but she has an autoimmune disease that she developed in her thirties. And she went the typical route for many years, and it just wasn't helping. And then, she just started going to the health store, the natural health store, and just reading everything she could, like even marketing inserts about supplements and things like that. So, she just responded, and that was what finally turned the corner for her and really put her autoimmune issues in remission is taking complete control herself and doing her own research. And then, with my grandma, like even growing up, things like, "Oh, if you're having an outbreak," she was more likely to say, "Hey, let's use an oatmeal mask," or things like that. Like, we're just a family who our first resource is always going to be kind of our bank of knowledge, our use of herbs and food.
Lee Van Roth: And it's that story that I think was so exciting to listen to from the oral history project, which is all available through YDL's website. As of right now, what made want to share that story in that format?
Shalina Rankin: Well, first, Finn Bell, who's just wonderful, a wonderful researcher, and I'd worked with her on a previous project, she asked me to contribute to the Ypsi Oral History Project. At first, I was a little hesitant, but I really did it for Finn, and then I think they just are really good researchers and have good questions, and so it just came out naturally. If you're referring to the story about my grandma and how we really almost lost her due to congestive heart failure. And the doctors were amazing. And so, I do want to make a point that I am not against using pharmaceuticals. Sometimes, things cannot be taken care of with just natural remedies. And they really saved her life with traditional medical, or not traditional, but allopathic medical intervention. But years later, after she'd recovered, we realized she wasn't taking her medicine at all, and we were really upset about that. But then, it was a few years later that I realized she was handling it all with herbal supplements at that point and continued to do so and do it well for years until I was actually able to take over that for her.
Lee Van Roth: Do you feel like that kind of mindset, as far as blending these two different worlds when it comes to medicine and healing, is that something that you hope people maybe kind of take away from you sharing your story through the oral history project or are there other kind of more pressing matters you feel that you kind of touched on through that work?
Shalina Rankin: Oh yes! I love that! And I think that the future is the best of both worlds. And I have to say being my grandma's caregiver and that last year of her life really helped me in so many ways. It cemented my faith in herbal remedies because it's one thing to take it for things that are maybe serious, but they're not life-threatening in the moment, maybe chronic conditions, but not acute conditions. It's another thing to be responsible for someone's health and wellness, and they have serious, serious conditions, and they're your loved one, and you are transitioning them to all herbal remedies. I saw how well it worked and how it increased her lifespan and her quality of life. And then, also, thankfully, her primary care physician was amazing. He's a brilliant older doctor who had started his own natural remedies kind of journey. And then, I have to say the few times she had to go to the hospital, we went to which is now Trinity Health, but the doctors were so helpful. She had fell. And so, she broke her wrist and her ribs. And I remember them saying, "Oh my goodness! She has diabetes. She has a congestive heart. She has this, this, this. What medication is she on?" And I would just say, "She's not any medication." And they're looking at me kind of like, "What?" And then, I tell them what she's on, what she's taking herbally. And they were so nice and calm about it, and they would just write it down. And they would ask the dosage, and they would tell me like, "You're doing a really good job!" So, I never felt attacked or they made me feel bad or that we weren't doing a good job, they were all really supportive. And I appreciate that. And it also seems like they had a database themselves of herbs and their interactions and common dosage. So, I felt very supported.
Lee Van Roth: This is On The Ground Ypsi on 89.1 WEMU. I'm speaking with Shalina Rankin, the founder of Fiery Maple Wholistic Healing here in Ypsi and one of the newest voices in the Ypsi Farmers and Gardeners Oral History Project. So, Shalina, speaking as someone that has contributed their voice and their story to this project, why, from your perspective, is it so important for other gardeners, growers, farmers like yourself to now have this opportunity to tell their own stories in a format like an oral history?
Shalina Rankin: Oh my goodness! So many reasons! One, for posterity, but, two, because I think when you kind of grab people and you ask them for your story, it gives them permission to kind of stop and think. And when you're talking, you just start remembering so many things that you had almost forgotten. And then, you start really making connections to your community, your family, your tribe. And you're like, "Oh my goodness! I learned that from this person," or, "Oh, I forgot that we used to do that." So, it kind of, in some ways, cements your family history as well or your tribal history as well. It kind of amplifies that and cements that and helps you re-remember and make connections. And then, also, if your family's still alive because so often that happens is as we lose our elders is when we're like, "Oh my goodness! I wish I wrote that recipe down or I wish I asked them more about that." It prompts you to do that now to your current family, right, your parents if they're still alive or your cousins or your second cousins. It reminds you that these stories are really important, and they're part of you and you want to really know them and keep them. And then, the other thing is I noticed on the website, their first goal says it's to increase food sovereignty for marginalized communities, and it's just, in this particular political climate and even in this environmental climate, it's really important that we get back to being dependent on ourselves, each other and our community, instead of these large corporations or these governments.
Lee Van Roth: For anybody listening who hasn't had a chance to dive into this collection yet, what would you hope that, if they're inspired to go out and listen today, what would you that they take away from not just your story, but from all of the stories in the collection, maybe even the collection just as a whole?
Shalina Rankin: Maybe I would want them to encourage them to kind of get to know their neighbors and the people in their community. Like, even if you asked me to do this, I went and looked at a lot of your On the Ground interviews, and it was so interesting to find out what's been going on in Ypsilanti. So, I would encourage you to be more inserted into your community and what's going on there.
Lee Van Roth: And we can always use more opportunities to do that, right, to be more neighborly with each other, I think.
Shalina Rankin: Yes!
Lee Van Roth: Well, Shalina, I want to thank you so much for joining me today and for sharing a little bit more about your work and your background when it comes to gardening and holistic healing practices and also for contributing your voice to this oral history project. It's been a real delight to learn about, so I'm happy to connect with you today!
Shalina Rankin: Oh, thank you so much! And you have a great rest of your day!
Lee Van Roth: For more on today's conversation and a link to the full article, visit our website at WEMU.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Lee Van Roth, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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