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The Maestras
In these changing times,
who will be the grandmothers
that pass us the knowledge for future generations?
Arkana Collective
Center for the conservation of indigenous wisdom
Our Garden
The main intention with our gardens are to make an arc of medicines that then provide the center, clients, and our students with an abundance of medicines that is sustainable within itself.
For our perfumes, our eye forumlas, and our medicine formulas in general, are all being planted in our gardens.
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The expanding gardens then go towards fueling the medicine making procedures & product creations, so that the jungle is not exhausted from our efforts & that foreign plants are able to thrive without the necessity to import.
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This specific platform goes to ensure the sustainability of our unique vision: crafting medicines in a sustainable & integrative way.
In the indigenous cosmovision, to create a perfume (for example), one must diet the plant before cutting. Our gardens provide the student & our curanderas with the necessary quantity of plant material needed to both ethically & traditionally approach the harvesting & medicine making with the plants.
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This process is a part of our visitors experience. These gardens are not of aesthetic or basic value, and the volunteers & v visitors are given the opportunity to plant & harvest from our gardens. Planting, harvesting, and guided instruction from our shaman (tobacco blessing before harvesting, permission granted, etc.) are all a part of this interactive garden process.
The gardens, abundant with both native & non native plants, are labeled with local & scientific names, so that the student & medicine apprentice may learn to navigate the plants without instruction of the maestro.
The gardens themselves are a of extreme essence, in that they provide a unique and integrative learning platform for people from around the world.
One of our key visions is to continue the purchasing of lands to expand these gardens. We accept donations that provide us with the funds to continue these planting, education, and medicine construction efforts. When we first bought land, 35 years ago, the land was a sugar cane alchohol operation & cattle operation.
The vision came soon after that the land was intended not to be just grass field, as it was at the beginning, but the following 35 years we have been steadily preserving & supporting the forest growth to return. The gardens of local native plants are of the most bio’supportive efforts in returning the forest back to it original heritage. These efforts support the wildlife, and the original and organic biodiversity to return to its natural state.
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