Blue Hummingbird Woman Invests in Native Artists and Creators
Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ (Tara Perron) is the owner of Blue Hummingbird Woman, an Indigenous Heart Medicine Gift Shop. She works with plant medicines, creates a variety of Indigenous arts, medicine bags and writes Native children’s books. She is AIFEP grantee and an Ozhigin Fellow.
Tanaǵidaŋ To Wiŋ (Tara Perron) is Dakota and Ojibwe and the owner of Blue Hummingbird Woman, an Indigenous Heart Medicine Gift Shop. She grew up learning from the earth, animals and her elders on her traditional homelands of St. Paul, Minnesota. She works with plant medicines, creates a variety of Indigenous arts, moccasins, drums, rattles, and medicine bags and writes Native children’s books.
The AIFEP grant has supported Tara and her passions twice (with a 18-month waiting period in between grants). For her economic independence project, AIFEP supported Tara and Blue Hummingbird Woman. The other grant project helped Tara distribute medicine baskets to young people. The baskets included language books, art journals, beads, and smudge kits to promote healing.
Blue Hummingbird Woman shares Tara’s gifts and but she is most excited to highlight other Indigenous artists and creators. The gift shop focuses on handmade, wild-harvested, and plant-based herbal remedies, salves, body butters, oils, soaps, and tea. You can also find artwork by Native artists from across Turtle Island: beadwork, clothing and jewelry.
Tara started her journey of starting a business through writing. She is also the author of four children books: Takoza walks with the blue moon girl, Animals of Nimaamaa-Aki, Animals of Khéya Wíta and Our Love Language. Her Indigenous children’s books incorporate the Dakota and Ojibwe languages.
Being raised by her grandmother, she learned about making salves for medicines. With her medicine salves and books, she started vending at powwows, and with the support of an AIFEP grant, opened her gift shop in downtown St. Paul in 2022.
