#followfriday Four Indigenous Herbalists to Follow
Embracing the knowledge of the generations before them, these Herbalists are changing lives by sharing their plant knowledge to empower others in their own healing. Through a range of workshops (online and in-person,), personal coaching, and the selling if plant medicine to heal ailments and amplify wellness, these amazing entrepreneurs and healers are putting beauty into the world while encouraging each of us to get to know decolonial medicine.
Check out these 4 Indigenous Herbalists:
Herbalista
Alita is a herbalist, holistic health practitioner and founder of Herbalista apothecary and Raiz Herbal remedies. She is a soul surfer and is committed to the health freedom of all people.
Alita’s light shines through her images and captions presenting her true love for the work she does and her appreciation for the land. Herbalista is a Dominican Republic-based company dedicated to supporting the health and wellness of others with medicinal plants. It includes an alchemy bar, a product line of herbal remedies, an herbal dispensary, ongoing workshops and events, and one-on-one health coaching.
When exploring the shop you’ll find that each item’s description teaches buyers about the healing properties of the ingredients included, empowering us with the ability to care for our bodies and engage with the natural world with more understanding.
On Instagram she shares videos from past workshops and a clear explanation of what knowledge participants can expect to gain in working with her. Her personable nature draws viewers and participants in as we get a glimpse into her practices of caring for the land while utilizing the tools for healing available in her local area.
Follow Herbalist on Instagram and check out the website.
Hood Herbalism
Hood Herbalism is an autonomous community based herbal education project bringing people together to unlearn and decentralize colonial ways of understanding plant knowledge. Founder Berenice Dimas and her team invite you to learn about the sacredness of plants, their medicine and connecting to the Earth and ancestral knowledge.
Their goal is to help you feel supported, grounded, and equipped with basic herbal knowledge to help you take care of yourself and your loved ones in these times. Hood Herbalism offers a range of courses to make this happen, where mutual learning experiences are encouraged through knowledge sharing activities and conversations.
Their Grounded Roots course offers herbal knowledge and body therapies that support each bodily system. The Pleasure Herbalism Course is open to those who are curious about how plants can support their journey of self-exploration and ready to welcome pleasure in new and expansive ways. The Herbal Medicine for Birth Support Course hosts weekly conversations with birthworkers that will share their journey with plant medicine as well as ways they use plants when supporting gestating folks.
Hood Herbalism’s work is BIPOC centered and community focused. We love to see it.
Follow Hood Herbalism on Instagram and check out the website.
Dose of Diosa
Mars is a trained herbalist in the Wise Woman tradition of healing. Her practice is rooted in Earth based healing traditions, alchemy and curanderismo. Connecting lunar aspects to empowered spirituality and grounding it in the ways the Earth heals our bodies, Mars writes deep and stimulating captions about her relationship with the Universe. She is open about moments of inspiration, reverence for the wisdom that has come before us and the journey toward being a good ancestor.
Her Medicinal Plant knowledge is available through her courses where she seeks to connect with participants in meaningful ways that transmute traditional knowledge sharing into empowerment and growth. The Dose of Diosa School of Healing and Earth Medicine hosts online courses including an 8-week online course on Ancestral Healing and Folk Herbalism as well as courses focusing on the Personal Healing Journey, Spiritual Activation and Ancestral Connection.
Mars explains that it is her mission and soul’s purpose to guide others back into relationship with the natural world. She says: “In this way, we begin to not only heal ourselves, but in turn become better stewards of the Earth. As we better we can understand the world around us, we can also better understand the world within us.”
Follow Dose of Diosa on Instagram and check out the website.
Marilu Shinn
Growing up, Marilu Shinn was surrounded by parallel worlds: the contemporary Mexico & the eclipsed, old world of mysticism. She witnessed her grandmother’s Earth-based healing practice first-hand, teachings that were transmitted down to her. In this way, the Shamanic way of empowerment & healing has been an integral part of her life experience & vision since she was a child.
Marilu offers online Earth-Based Medicine and Womb Wisdom Teachings, and holds Ceremony in Santa Cruz, California. As a conduit of healing, she facilitates International Women’s Retreats where she shares her embodied ancestral knowledge. She says: “We are of better service when we choose to remain regulated, grounded and keeping our eyes on the highest Vision of what we are co-creating. “
Her insightful Instagram captions are informative, personally moving and challenge viewers to be reflective of their participation in habits or processes that distance them from their truth. To this she says, “ Take deep breaths, call your energy back. Connect with the living energy source of the Earth. Tend to her in the ways that you can."
Through her work Marilu honours the sacred nature of Indigenous wisdom that is grounded in lived experience, working to guide us in thinking beyond the confines of colonial notions of time and space.
Follow Marilu Shinn in Instagram and check out the Kawak Energy Medicine website.
