There is an understanding that has lived within our hearts since before the inception of Up the Hill Inc. (Up the HIll at Loakin Botanicals), traditional medicine belongs to those who need it, we must carry this responsibility to share this medicine with the honor and respect of our Ancestors.
At Up the Hill Inc. we do not view our traditional Indigenous apothecary as a simple business venture or a retail brand. Operating here in Neskonlith, Secwépemcúlecw, it is a sacred responsibility. It is a commitment to keeping the ancestral plant wisdom alive, and a profound duty to share that healing knowledge with a world that is increasingly weary, disconnected, and burdened by chemical anxiety.
We don't just share our Indigenous healing knowledge and culture to stand out in a modern marketing trend. We share it because the world is searching for a return to the internal state of balance reached only when your body uses the most natural and preferred methods.
Here is why we open the doors of our traditional Indigenous apothecary to the world, and how we marry that sacred heritage with the uncompromised precision of modern clinical botany.
[ Ancestral Inheritance ] ➔ [ A Sacred Mandate to Share ] ➔ [ Clinical Botany Precision ] ➔ [ Collective Bioharmony ]
1. An Inheritance of the Heart: The Matrilineal Directive
The traditional knowledge that forms the backbone of Up the Hill is not ours alone. It was carried to us across generations, passed down through an unbroken matrilineal line of legacy teachings from our mother and our great-grandmother.
Growing up, we were taught that botanical wisdom was never meant to be kept to ourselves. It was given as a trust—a gift meant to heal, protect, and restore balance. Our matrilineal roots taught us how to listen to the land, how to respect the living spirit of the plants, and how to identify the exact moments when a botanical holds its peak physical and energetic potency.
By sharing these ancestral formulations, its our way of honoring the healing women who came before us, ensuring their voices continue to be heard for the health and wellness of families across Canada and beyond.
2. Shared with the World, Validated by the Clinic
Sharing Indigenous traditional healing knowledge with a modern world requires a unique kind of translation. To ensure our ancestral medicine is respected, safe, and undeniably effective for everyone who seeks it, we marry our traditional apothecary with the exacting standards of a specialist herbal clinic.
As a certified herbalist, we also look at ancestral remedies through the lens of phytochemistry. We map out the active, bio-available compounds within every single leaf, root, and bark to understand the exact clinical mechanisms behind why they do real work in your body.
Because we treat this knowledge as a sacred responsibility, we refuse to use the vague, estimated guidelines found in standard mass-market retail for our specialized formulations.
The Clinical Measurement Standard: If you look at a grocery store box of tea, the instructions will always tell you to scoop an arbitrary, standard "one teaspoon" into your cup. While our everyday, non-clinical blends follow that standard 1 tsp measurement for a gentle, casual steep, our clinical teas defy it completely. Our clinical teas have double the standard grocery store measurements. They are formulated, measured, and portioned strictly by clinical botanical measurements and therapeutic value. Because a fluffy leaf weighs less than a dense root, we calibrate every clinical formulation to strict measurements so that you receive the exact, double-strength concentration required to create shift and balance internally.
3. Protecting the Earth While Healing the Collective
We cannot share authentic Indigenous healing goods without fiercely protecting the lands they come from. In the commercial world, supply chains are extractive—taking as much as possible to feed industrial demand. In our traditional apothecary, we practice supply chain sovereignty rooted in generational sustainability.
The land is our relative.
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Our Ancestral Law: Our harvest is strictly guided by ancestral law: we never take more than we need, and we always leave enough to reseed and regenerate for the next year, and for the next seven generations to come.
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Harvesting Selectively: We never rip plants up carelessly. We harvest selectively so the parent plant returns stronger the next spring, and we intentionally leave enough for the birds, the bees, and the wildlife who depend on these plants as much as we do.
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Meticulous Sourcing Curation: For ingredients that cannot grow natively in our local soil, we partner exclusively with trusted, specialized Canadian distributors who share our ethical parameters.
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Our Standard: We ensure our finished infusions and topical remedies retain their raw, uncompromised living chemistry.
The Path to Global Well-Being
The modern world is looking for an antidote to synthetic overload. Whether you are a parent packing our rugged, DEET-free Wildwood Outdoor Pack for your child's summer camp, a community or company leader looking out for your team's physical well-being, or someone sitting quietly with a cup of our weight-calibrated clinical tea, you are experiencing the fulfillment of our sacred mandate.
We house our high-potency formulations in premium, UV-protective blue bottles and eco-conscious, packaging to shield the active chemistry naturally, keeping our products 100% free from toxic synthetic preservatives.
We are opening our apothecary doors to show the world that wellness can be deeply sophisticated, clinically precise, and profoundly rooted in Indigenous ancestral honor all at the same time. This knowledge is our gift to the world, hand-crafted with love, precision, and respect, from our hill to your home.
June Anthony-Reeves
Certified Herbalist
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