Willamette Riverkeeper & Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
Thank you to everyone who received treatment from Well Forest Acupuncture last year! You helped me donate $200 to Growing Gardens, a wonderful non-profit that works to build meaningful relationships between plants and humans through home gardens, youth stewardship programs and hands-on educational learning experiences for incarcerated adults and youth all around Oregon.
This year, please join me in supporting two local non-profits with a focus on RIVER health… Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and Willamette Riverkeeper!
Rivers in East Asian Medicine
Acupuncture points are found along specific channels on the body. Often times these channels start from the upper half of your body and travel as far as your feet. Each channel supports a different organ system according to East Asian medical theory. When a channel is compromised, Qi stagnation or lack of flow can occur, affecting the body’s functions.
Think of Qi stagnation like a river that has been dammed up or blocked in some way. Sticks and debris start to back up and the water begins to look murky and unhealthy. We want Qi to be flowing freely in our channels like a free flowing river. Now think of the pressure that can build up behind a block in the river. Perhaps you can imagine how that pressure can be viewed as stagnation and how that could manifest as pain or dysfunction in the body.
Rivers are a prime example how one obstruction can have several negative impacts in our local ecosystem, just as one block in an acupuncture channel can cause several symptoms in the body. What is often overlooked is that humans are apart of that ecosystem, not just the plants and animals that need healthy rivers to survive.
Everything is Connected
On March 17, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added Bradford Island to the National Priorities List, making it a Superfund site. For nearly 4 decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumped toxic materials into the river including electrical equipment and other debris containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), contaminating the soil, water and fish in the area. Bradford island neighbors the Bonneville dam along the Columbia river and is a traditional fishing site for the Columbia river’s native American tribes, including Yakima Nation.
It should come as no surprise that colonialist structures often affect our most vulnerable human populations, including our local indigenous communities. From environment, to healthcare, there is so much emphasis placed on capitalist ideology (profit over people for example) that is inherently built on white supremacy. It belittles acquired generational knowledge, observation, experience and connection to nature, something that is the backbone of traditional cultures. The more we devalue our ecosystems and human’s relationship to them, the more dysbiosis and injustice humans will continue experience.
“The elders taught me that the plants and animals are the old people and that we were the last, therefore youngest, creatures put on earth. We are given some abilities but not all the wisdom and strength to survive in this world. So to whom do we turn to learn this wisdom and to gain strength? We turn to our elders, the older living beings—the plants and animals.”
Jaime Pinkham
Nez Perce
How do I get involved?
Getting involved is as simple as receiving self-care. When you schedule a treatment with Well Forest Acupuncture, you can feel good knowing you are not only making a conscious decision that will benefit your health, but also the health of your community. If you feel like getting outside, keep an eye open for in-person volunteer opportunities. You can also donate directly!
With respect,
Kecia Fox, MSOM, LAc