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Project 57 Week 48: Cedar tea

Published February 12, 2025 by Ashley Edwards

There are species of cedar trees that are native to both eastern and western parts of what is now known as Canada. The Eastern white cedar grows in forested regions in the Maritimes, along the Great Lakes, and in the St. Lawrence forests in Quebec and Ontario (Owens, 2015).

Cedar is used by Indigenous Peoples in both the eastern and western parts of the nation known as Canada as a medicine to support mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. For Anishnaabe Peoples, cedar is one of the four sacred medicines, along with sage, tobacco, and sweetgrass (Anishnawbe Mushkiki, n.d.). These four plant medicines are an integral part of many ceremonies. Here in BC, the temperate rainforests include two native species of cedar: Western red cedar and yellow cedar (Huang, 2009). Both species of cedar play a crucial role in the lives, cultures, and spirituality of Coast Salish peoples who harvest and use every part of these trees including their bark, roots, wood, withes, and fronds (Huang, 2009). Yellow cedar is especially known to be anti-inflammatory and people in the Coast Salish Nations have used it for many generations to help heal wounds and in tourniquets (Huang, 2009).

Perhaps you may not know, though, that cedar fronds (the green leaves of the cedar tree) can also be made into a tea? This website provides a step by step guide (in written transcript and video) for how to brew cedar tea (Cambium Indigenous Professional Services, 2021a).

It is important to learn how to brew cedar tea properly! Made well, it is high in vitamin C and has immune boosting properties. BUT, if you steep it for too long, it can also be a powerful laxative/emetic (meaning that it will make you vomit and/or poop!!) (this information comes from an oral teaching that Julia Lane received from an Anishnaabekew Knowledge Keeper during her MA studies in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University).

Cedar tea played an important role in early contact between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous colonizers/explorers/settlers. In many cases, when explorers arrived in Indigenous territories, they were sick from having spent many months at sea. One common illness that these colonizers experienced was scurvy – a severe vitamin C deficiency. Indigenous Peoples recognized the symptoms of this illness and provided the newcomers with cedar tea as an effective cure (Cambium Indigenous Professional Services, 2021b).