The evening begins with music and a potluck in the barn 5:30-7pm, followed by a presentation by Charles Kennard on native and introduced plants and their uses for basketry, cordage, food, medicine, and boat-building.
Kennard will show a wide variety of plants in their natural habitats, and discuss the gathering, preparation, and uses of them, mainly following central California Indian practices,but he will also include some European techniques.
Charles Kennard, a resident of San Anselmo, is a long-time student of central California-Indian-technique twined and coiled baskets, as well as of several European techniques, including bee-hive weaving.
He has been giving presentations and workshops on traditional uses of native plants throughout the Bay Area for adults and youth for more than a decade. Full-size tule boats built in his workshops are in the collections of the Oakland Museum, the Academy of Sciences, Lake County Museum and the River Heritage Center, Petaluma. Charlie is active in habitat restoration with Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed in Marin County, and is also a professional photographer.
