South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) invites students and the public to attend a cedar gathering ceremony on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, beginning at 10 a.m. SPSCC student and Native American Master Weaver Yeeham Janice Hicks-Bullchild, an enrolled Nisqually tribal member, will lead the ceremony, demonstrating the traditional method of stripping bark from cedar trees on the Olympia campus.
The gathering will take place outside in a grove to the west of parking lot D, behind building 22.
Hicks-Bullchild will open the ceremony with a short explanation of the history and cultural significance of the process, as well as drums, song and prayer. She will spend the next several hours gathering bark strips from four trees. The community is invited to visit and observe at any step of the process.
After the bark strips have been removed from the trees, the accumulated bark will be rolled and prepared for a year-long curing process. Hicks-Bullchild will return to campus next spring to host a traditional basket-weaving workshop for students and the community using the cured bark.
