Courtney McGill’s connection to Sapelo Island began when her mother, Michele Johnson, visited as a journalist to cover historian and author Cornelia Walker Bailey and the Gullah Geechee community in the early 2000s. Michele fell in love with the place and the people, and what started as a one-time assignment turned into annual family vacations to Sapelo. Eventually she met Larry Johnson, one of Sapelo’s ferry captains, and after they married she made the decision to move her family, including Courtney and her brother, to the island full time.
The move from Charlotte, North Carolina, to a remote barrier island is a big shift for anyone, especially for a 12-year-old. But over time, Sapelo’s tides, traditions and people took root in McGill’s life, cultivating her deep appreciation for Gullah Geechee culture and a desire to share their stories.
Today, McGill is the voice behind “Griot’s Garden,” a podcast that explores the intersection between people, plants and culture, through conversations with descendants of Sapelo Island’s Gullah Geechee community. Produced by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, where McGill works as a program specialist, the series showcases how native plants play a meaningful role in life on the island, revealing layers of ethnobotanical knowledge passed down through generations.
At the heart of the podcast are the people of Hogg Hummock, home to one of the last remaining intact Gullah Geechee communities in the Lowcountry. Founded by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, the community remains committed to cultural preservation. Its residents, descendants of West Africans, have retained traditions in language, spirituality, ethnobotany and stewardship of the land.
Growing up on the island, the community’s traditions resonated with McGill through everyday moments of storytelling.
“Sitting around the fire, hearing family cracking jokes and going back in time, telling us about something that happened when they were kids… even going to church, hearing the call and response style of worship. Every element of existence tells a story on Sapelo. It is history and knowledge retained,” says McGill.
The podcast began to take shape in 2023, when McGill teamed up with Keren Giovengo, who served as Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s EcoScapes Program Manager until her retirement in July 2024. Giovengo brought decades of native plant expertise to the project, ensuring that each episode balanced cultural storytelling with education about the environmental importance of Georgia’s coastal plants.
Each episode of “Griot’s Garden” centers on a plant and a person from the community. In the first episode, Sharron Grovner shares the art of sweetgrass basket weaving, a tradition passed down through generations, reflecting both ancestral roots and personal creativity. In Episode 2, Stanley Walker, a seventh generation Sapelonian and eldest son of Cornelia Walker Bailey, discusses the history and cultural and medicinal uses of life everlasting. And in the final episode, McGill’s stepfather, Larry Johnson, recounts his experiences with the toothache tree and reflects on how gardening and plant knowledge were part of daily life.
“All three are community leaders. They are also culture keepers,” says McGill. “They practice, daily, the traditions that were passed down to them; Larry through gardening, Sharron through basket-weaving, and Stanley through net making and herbal practices.”
Even the name of the podcast speaks to the practice of cultural preservation. A griot is a West African term for storyteller, someone entrusted with preserving oral history. “Griot’s Garden” maintains that tradition, fostering a space where stories about the relationship between plants and people are given room to grow.
“Griot’s Garden” is produced by Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant and funded through private donors. You can listen to the podcast here https://griotsgarden.transistor.fm/. It’s also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Hogg Hummock community (also known as Hog Hammock) was established by direct descendants of West Africans who were enslaved on the plantations of coastal Georgia. As with other Gullah Geechee communities, Hogg Hummock developed a distinct, interconnected culture of subsistence and cooperative living, due in part to the relative isolation from communities on the mainland. Learn more about how to engage and support the community at https://sicars.org/
