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Happy birthday to #botanist Isabella Aiona Abbott (1919-2010), renown algae expert, celebrated seaweed cook, devoted teacher & mentor, expert on Hawaiian ethnobotany, 1st Indigenous Hawaiian woman to earn a doctorate in science & 1st woman or person of colour to become a full professor on Stanford's biology faculty. She literally wrote the textbook on Californian seaweed &…
recognized as the expert on Hawaiian seaweed, where edible seaweed is called limu. She was known as the "First Lady of Limu". She discovered more than 200 species of algae. One of her seaweed recipes was printed in Gourmet Magazine. She worked to document historical uses of algae, taking oral histories and citing elders in her work. She strove to revitalize our relationship with natural ecosystems, encourage mindful consumption of local plants and algae along with ocean stewardship.
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In 1997, Isabella Aiona Abbott was awarded the highest award in marine botany, the National Academy of Sciences Gilbert Morgan Smith medal.
In my print, she is surrounded by algae of the Pacific, all of which appeared in Abbott's research publications, including several species she discovered, or based on images of specimen she personally collected or whose traditional use as food she documented.
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Abbott said limu kala (shown) was likely the most important limu. “People eat it, turtles eat it. And kala means ‘to forgive.’ It’s used in purification ceremonies like ho’oponopono (the Hawaiian reconciliation process), or if you’ve been sitting with a dead person, or if you’re going on a dangerous journey.”