By Keagan Perlette
@geminisympathizer
Arianna Johnny-Wadsworth calls herself “Devil’s Cub Girl.” The Qu’wutsun’ (Cowichan) medicine maker garnered the nickname after presenting her first formula–a devil’s club salve– to a group of Coast Salish elders in Lummi, Washington, where she was facilitating a workshop on herbal medicine. Johnny-Wadsworth had been gifted a box of devil’s club by the faculty at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, where she was teaching, and that box of medicine was the launch pad for her business, Qu’wutsun’ Made.
Using ancestral knowledge of herbal medicines that the Coast Salish people have employed for millennia, Johnny-Wadsworth creates skin and body care products that are rooted in her spirituality and in commitment to serving her community. “My products are inspired by or [employ] sacred plant medicines that have been taught to my family members or to my grandmother since time immemorial,” Johnny-Wadsworth says. “Devil’s club and nettle being the two that I work with the most; those plants have been part of my territory for thousands of years.”
After taking a part-time gig at a skincare shop while attending school for holistic wellness, Johnny-Wadsworth realized that she was interested in essential oils and saw how her knowledge of plant medicines could translate into a creative venture. “It started with this idea that [my business partner, Brandon, and I] wanted to make a smudge for anybody. We loved the powwow trail, we love to travel and be a part of any kind of Indigenous community events, and so we [started making and] selling candles. It gave us an excuse to be there and to be a vendor.” It was at one of these powwows that she was approached by a teacher at Northwest Indian College, who wanted Johnny-Wadsworth to share her knowledge as an instructor at NWIC. She began producing candles and formulating her own medicinal products. Her first workshop was her own bedroom, which quickly filled up with jars, wax, and essential oils. At first, Johnny-Wadsworth was hesitant to use the gifted devil’s club, because growing up, her grandmother had kept it bundled by the doorway and instructed her: “Don’t touch it, don’t look at it, don’t even ask about it.” So, she prayed on it and Googled it, and when Google didn’t give her the answers, she turned to her community. She asked what medicine people needed, and many were looking for a way to treat pain. She found out that the devil’s club was indeed a traditional topical remedy for muscle and joint pain as well as skin problems like eczema.
Just over two years later, Johnny-Wadsworth is already outgrowing her new studio in North Vancouver. She continues to make the very same devil’s club salve that impressed the elders at the workshop, but she’s added clay masks, perfumes, tattoo aftercare balm, and facial mist to her lineup of medicine-infused beauty products. She attributes her steady growth and loyal fan base to her steadfast respect for her culture, her land, and the knowledge of her ancestors. “My spiritual integrity is what drives my business,” she says. “I never put my business before spirituality. I think the reason I am doing so well and am able to reach so many people is because I always put the plants first: they have their own spirit, so I make sure that people are aware of that.”
Johnny-Wadsworth considers her products to be medicine first. She tells me, “In my community, or wherever I travel to, if there’s an elder that needs the medicine that I make, or a product that I make, I don’t charge them in any way. I just give it to them. I don’t think a lot of businesses do that, or even understand that. Our elders carry so many teachings, and their time is so fragile and their pain is so imminent. The least I could do is alleviate their pain so that they are here a little bit longer to teach us a little bit more.”
“Plant medicine is all around us and it’s very easy to incorporate it into anything,” says Johnny-Wadsworth. “I teach workshops on how to work with the plants that I use in my products.” In addition to offering workshop services which anyone is able to book, Johnny-Wadsworth currently facilitates workshops in Stanley Park; what was once the site of a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) village. “I think that [teaching people about plants native to the park, in the park is] one step towards this so-called reconciliation.”
Her next venture is moving to Dené-Navajo territory, Santa Fe, to learn southern-style medicine and spread her own knowledge to those who need it. “We live on Turtle Island, it’s a massive nation of Indigenous people, but we’re so different from the next tribe over, let alone completely different countries. I want to find a way to connect North and South.” Johnny-Wadsworth is an essential keeper of knowledge and a entrepreneur who has carved out a crucial niche in a saturated market. Her products serve to connect her community to one another and to bring people back to the sacred power of the land, a power that demands respect.
“This isn’t just a business for me,” she says, “it’s a lifestyle. Every single human being on this entire planet has come from plants and we were using plants before pharmaceutical companies decided to profit from basic needs. So I’m reintroducing people to plants.”
You can shop Qu’wutsun’ Made’s selection of products, and sign-up for workshops led by Johnny-Wadsworth, online here.
Keagan Perlette is a writer working on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She is the Poetry and Prose Editor for SAD Mag.
