Project 57 Week 25: Cedar

Cedar is often “considered the most sacred of all evergreens” (Wish-Key). Hilary Stewart illustrates the wide range of uses that Northwest Coast First Nations have for Cedar, employing every aspect of the evergreen tree in varying ways, such as for carved poles, canoes, housing planks, posts, figurines, medicine, steam-bent wood for bentwood boxes, ropes, matting, clothing, basketry, sewing and much more (Stewart).  Given that Cedar could be used for nearly anything, it is no surprise that it also became incorporated into rituals. Stewart explains that the “cedar bark” was used in the cleansing rituals of the Kwakiutl (180). As detailed by Stewart, “both spiritual and bodily ailments were addressed with Cedar (180) and is integral to many healing, prayer, and ritual practices.  

Each Indigenous Nation has its own distinct cultural practices and cedar may play different roles or varying significance within their cultural and spiritual practices. The Huu-ay-aht Peoples have a Brushing ceremony which uses “boughs of cedar” to cleanse a space for ceremony and spiritual transformation (Huuayaht.org). A Brushing ceremony is a spiritual practice where “cedar branches are essentially used to ‘brush’ the body and purify the spirit” (Kim, et al). As the “most sacred of all the evergreens”, Cedar remains an integral asset to many First Nation communities.  

For more information on Indigenous uses of Cedar, please consider the following resources: 

• 'Brushing Ceremony' held at foundry Abbotsford for new Aboriginal carving. 2019. Abbotsford News.
• Cultural uses of non-timber forest products among the Sts'ailes, British Columbia, Canada. Kim, Trosper, Mohs. 2012
• Cedar: Tree of Life, Educational Videos @ ComoxValleySchools.ca
• Cedar, Indigenous Foundations, UBC