Pier’s Student Intro

Hey Ethnobotany Friends!

My name is Pierette Imbriano, but it would be great if you could call me Pier. I have always been interested in ethnobotany but didn’t have the language to know and articulate it. I was fascinated by natural survival although can’t claim the brave title of survivalist like others in the program. I have worked on farms and obtained a license in aromatherapy where I can practice medicinally. I grew up in a small town in the suburbs, lived briefly in a rural area and for the majority of my life in cities. I’m currently a Brooklynite in New York City but have lived in various places where I learned to love at times being a naturalist, other times a pragmatist and many times just simply adapting. I hope to learn how indigenous cultures live sustainably and interact with botany and hope to be able to adapt these lessons on a larger scale that I can transfer to city planning in NYC. Hopefully accomplishing sustainable climate & culturally friendly universal trends that can be incorporated on individual and greater levels.

On a basic level, I’m hoping to further my study of relationships between people and the earth. I want to reunite with my love of wild plants and ecosystems, while engaging on an intellectual level but mostly appreciating people and living beings w/instinct and common sense on a social, ecological, culturally sensitive/relevant level that will also provide insight into basic economic community insights. While my passion for plants is primarily around the medicinal use, I’m hoping to broaden that view again and love making pragmatic items such as baskets and clothes, toys and jewelry as I had in Minto. I’m looking to understand the socio-economic cultural and ecological connection on many levels from basic necessities to adornments/enhancements, transportation, infrastructure and more. But I’m also looking for other skills as well. I want to learn how to document these individual studies and their connection/relativity to each other in a way I can share where appropriate and approved by the culture and especially in a way where I can pick it up and jump right back into the information in 10 years as if no time has passed. I’m also super excited to learn from each person in this course- everyone is so unique. The material is amazing and I have no doubt meeting everyone in person during field study will be awe-inspiring.