🌿 We are honored to welcome M’anawa Kuya Ni from Kiskeya to Taíno Woods Sanctuary for our Summer Solstice Gathering on June 20th. Joining us alongside Miguel, she will guide a special Circle of Native Wild Caribbean Medicinal Plants — sharing ancestral plant wisdom, spirituality, and traditional healing practices rooted in Kiskeya and the wider Caribbean.
An Indigenous leader, mother, farmer, and protector of ancestral knowledge, M’anawa has spent over 15 years studying native medicinal plants alongside healers, elders, and grandmothers across the Caribbean. Her work centers the protection of Indigenous wisdom, biocultural traditions, and healing through reconnection to the medicines of our lineage.
Together we will explore herbal baths, infusions, smudging, offerings to the plants, and the spiritual relationship between land, body, and healing. We look forward to welcoming her into circle with all of you.
We will be connecting with:
> Opening and introductory circle
> Introduction to the ancestral cultural and spiritual worldview
> Offering to the spirit of the plants
> Uses: Infusions, Herbal baths, Smudging, Mother tincture
M’anawa Kuya Ni
Indigenous leader, activist, doula, farmer, and advocate for spaces dedicated to the protection and dissemination of ancestral wisdom and techniques.
Her work is based on protecting biocultural knowledge and the right of Indigenous peoples to freely practice their spiritual and cultural beliefs.
Her wisdom is empirical, and her use of plants as her own medicine has led her to research native Caribbean wild botany for over 15 years. Her maternal family introduced her to this knowledge, and over the years, to continue enriching her understanding, she has journeyed with wise women, healers, and grandmothers in her territory in Kiskeya (Dominican Republic), as well as in Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago.
A mother of two, her first child was born via unnecessary cesarean section, and her second at home. Both pregnancies were unmedicated, with natural medicine as a great ally.Currently, she facilitates medicinal plant circles and supports mothers and families during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.
She is a co-founder of @okanibohio, an organization that safeguards and protects endangered seeds, honoring and defending water and ancestral well-being. She is also a member of the United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP), where she collaborates in advocating for the rights in various international forums, including the UN.
Introduction to the Circle of Native Wild Caribbean Medicinal Plants Uses, Properties, and Spirituality
Welcome family to the circle, to the world of your ancestors plants, the medicine of your lineage, and therefore, your own medicine.
We will immerse ourselves in the wisdom of the Taíno indigenous worldview and the knowledge of the folk traditions of the Kiskeya countryside, connecting with the spirit of the plants and their medicinal benefits—wisdom passed down from generation to generation, a clear legacy of resilience in these 500 years of colonization.
Returning to our roots, to our home, is a healing act of decolonizing our health, body, mind, and spirit.
