Ancestral Herbal Narratives - Botanical Illustrations

In early 2022, Highland Park High School graduate and former Raíces volunteer Joyce Mo reached out to our team. Currently studying at Princeton University, Joyce asked if she could spend the summer volunteering with Raíces on our Ancestral Herbal Narratives Community History Project, with the hopes of creating a series of botanical illustrations to supplement the materials available through this archival project. 

Joyce was invited to join our Community History Project Panel for 2022, and decided to focus on botanical illustrations for herbs that are used both in the tropical region of South East China where her family is from and in the Caribbean. By illustrating plants that could be found in the traditions of her own ancestral culture, as well as, some of the Caribbean traditions that Raíces works to preserve, Joyce produced illustrations that can be utilized for cross cultural storytelling, research and preservation work.

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