Reporting from some of the youngest land on earth, our collaborators share how the wisdom and wonder of nature provide maps to restoration of our ecosystems and routes into the well-being of our psyches and physical bodies. We welcome visitors to browse our library, sit at our table, and take in the sound of a courtyard garden. We thank our ancestors, family members, teachers, and friends who have guided us on this journey and invite you into our interconnected histories and ongoing conversations.
Botanica is rooted in a series of interviews conducted by Rachel Breunlin and Monique Verdin as part of the Bayou Culture Collaborative, which operates under the auspices of the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program and the Louisiana Folklore Society. The Collaborative seeks to document cultural traditions as Louisiana faces land loss and a changing environment. As part of that project, Breunlin and Verdin interviewed a range of gardeners and plant specialists, including Tammy Greer, a United Houma Nation medicine wheel steward; mutual aid medicine makers from the Bvlbancha Collective; and Maypop Herb Shop folk herbalist Rachael Reeves. Through these interviews, along with historic and contemporary artifacts, photographs, and paintings from the Louisiana State Museum’s collection as well as from a few private lenders, the exhibition explores the history and understanding of medicinal plants, such as sassafras, Auricularia (jelly ear) mushrooms, and cleavers, in a range of rural and urban communities that draw on different cultural traditions, including those of Native peoples, Louisiana French cultures, and African Americans. Botanica weaves together these strands to immerse museum visitors in a world of Louisiana plants, traditional healing cultures, and the people, past and present, who make up those cultures.
This exhibition will be open at the Cabildo until May 10, 2026.
GUEST CURATORS
Rachel Breunlin is a cultural anthropologist and director of the Neighborhood Story Project (NSP), a nonprofit collaborative ethnography organization in partnership with the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of New Orleans (UNO). Since 2004, NSP has produced books, exhibits, events, and courses that share the complex stories of south Louisiana.
Monique Verdin, a member of the United Houma Nation, is director of the Land Memory Bank and Seed Exchange, which is dedicated to inspiring and actualizing Mississippi River Delta preservation, restoration, and adaptations through cultural happenings, strategic installations, and a digital archive.
Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes serves as an exhibit advisor and collaborator for Botanica. He is a former interpretive park ranger at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park Service’s Barataria Preserve and will work on a section of the exhibit dedicated to the historical and contemporary swamps of Louisiana.
Special Thanks to Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, University of New Orleans Collaborative Public Humanities in Action Grant funded by the Mellon Foundation, Friends of the Cabildo, the National Performance Network’s Southern Artists for Social Change, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, Bayou Culture Collaborative, Louisiana Folklife Society, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, Mondo Bizarro Productions, Gulf South Open School, Rajan-Young Family Fund, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Louisiana Museum Foundation, Louisiana State University Press
