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Solidarity Apothecary

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The Solidarity Apothecary’s main projects have included distributing the book, The Prisoner’s Herbal to more than 600 prisoners around the world. This has recently increased through the launch of the Prisoners Herbalism Collective that is sharing the book as widely as possible across Europe and North America, translating the book into French and Spanish, coordinating a distance learning course in herbalism for prisoners and generally starting conversations about health justice and imprisonment via grassroots media projects.

The Solidarity Apothecary directly supports people experiencing state repression and state violence with herbal medicines, through care packages for people on trial and those leaving prison. Medicine is also made for the Herbalists without Borders Mobile Clinic in Calais in solidarity with refugees experiencing border violence.

Nicole Rose is also the author of the book Overcoming Burnout, which is shared with grassroots organisers worldwide to help them prevent or recover from burnout and explore the politics of care and mutual aid. She is also developing an online course to support frontline organisers to learn herbalism to help them sustain their work and will be launching a podcast about frontline herbalism in the Autumn of 2020.

The Solidarity Apothecary has also been supporting frontline resistance to the badger cull, by distributing immune and stress support care packs to hunt saboteur groups, as well as supplying occupations and mobilisations with herbal first aid materials. Nicole is working on her third book, bringing content from contributors worldwide, about Herbalism and State Violence. The book shares recipes and articles about practical herbal medicine for surviving state repression, exploring issues such as trauma and the body.

The Solidarity Apothecary also tries to share and respond to wider calls for solidarity within the herbal community. Herbal medicine was recently donated to Black-led mutual aid projects following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings. These include a Solidari-tea project developed by the Apocalypse Apothecary and the Herbs Heal Hearts initiative sharing herbal support with Black women. In September 2020, the Solidarity Apothecary will be launching sales of Lavender Oil made with olive oil from communities in Palestine to help fundraise for this work. Books and merchandise have also been sold to fundraise for bail funds, anti-repression collectives, BIPOC herbalists and for herbal medicine support for Wetʼsuwetʼen resistance to pipelines.

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