Healing Traditions in Acadiana -- From Prayers to Plants: how plant remedies are used in traitement

Dr. Dana David Gravot highlights a local understanding of traitement, or treatment as it is called in English, a healing tradition specific to Francophone Louisiana. After the Acadian resettlement in Louisiana—a Spanish colony at the time—the Cajuns developed a unique, blended culture in response to both a physical environment (which included swamps, bayous, marshes, and prairies) and a social environment that mixed continental and Caribbean French peoples, Germans, Spaniards, Indigenous peoples, and African and Anglo-Americans. Sharing the need for medical attention, the practice of traitement—and the importance of traiteurs—was born. The presentation will highlight uses of local plants to address illnesses.

You may also like the following events from Vermilionville:

• This Wednesday, 28th May, 10:00 am, Homeschool Days at Vermilionville in Lafayette
• This Sunday, 1st June, 01:00 pm, Le Bal du Dimanche -- The Rhythm Aces in Lafayette
• Next Friday, 6th June, 08:30 am, First Friday French Table in Lafayette