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Creating art is a powerful way to express the ineffable experiences that people have with ayahuasca. The Ayahuasca & Visionary Art exhibition at the World Ayahuasca Conference will connect, inspire, and provide a window into the visionary experience.

For three days at the World Ayahuasca Conference this spring, there will be back-to-back presentations and dialogues on timely issues surrounding ayahuasca. Diverse representatives, including indigenous people and researchers, will be discussing the different ways they use these plants and the lenses through which they understand them. Groups working to protect the Amazon will be joining the global ayahuasca community to brainstorm how they might form alliances for conservation. And, more than a dozen other thought leaders will be speaking on how they work with ayahuasca to encourage individual, community, and planetary healing.

While these discussions are happening, there will be an equally important component of the conference that involves no talking at all: 5000-square-feet of art. The exhibition, titled “Ayahuasca & Visionary Art: A Coming Together of Cultures,” will include four galleries with original and print works from Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America. One gallery will be devoted to originals of Peruvian artist Pablo Amaringo, widely considered the father of contemporary ayahuasca visionary art that has influenced artists around the world.

Another will be devoted to Luis Tamani, a well-known artist from the Peruvian Amazon who applies his skill as a classically-trained abstract painter to the cosmology of plants. A third gallery will feature Li Lian Kolster, a former scientist who, with the encouragement of Tamani, paints intricate and enchanting mythical scenes inspired by her deep plant medicine work among the Shipibo people in the Amazon rainforest.

Sitaramaya Sita, who with Gloria Valdez, is the organizer and curator of the exhibit, says art will surround people in this space, allowing for personal moments of discovery. Amanda Sage, a Colorado native whose paintings largely center around powerful images of women in moments of revelation and healing, will also be in the exhibit alongside Lindy Kehoe, whose world of characters take us through whimsical and reverent journeys in nature; Chilean artist Mariela de la Paz, whose vibrant paintings emanate a reverence for shamanism and indigenous knowledge; Miguel Vilca Vargas, a visionary artist from Pucallpa, Peru; and Bruce Rimell, whose abstract works merge a cubist-like aesthetic with traditional visionary art to explore motifs of cognition, entheogens, and culture. Together, each of the dozens of artists brings his or her own aesthetic to their experiences that are distinct and yet unified.

GALLERY

Art as a powerful connector

Sita says one important role of art, and visionary art more specifically, is that it helps people to recall and reconnect with powerful experiences with plants that so often transcend words. This art is also something, Sita said, that she thinks can bring attendees together in new ways as it confirms the shared experiences that people have when sitting with ayahuasca and other plants, regardless of who they are or where they live.

“Many people will look at a painting and be like ‘oh my gosh that was my vision last year’ so there is an identifiable cosmological landscape,” and as noted by Sita, “What does that do? It brings us together.”

Sita has been collecting and sharing the work of indigenous artists and artisans from the Amazon for almost two decades. Art, she says, whether it’s jewelry, body design, painting, sculpture, tapestry, or some other medium, is “an integral part of ayahuasca culture.” In her time traveling in the Amazon, she has yet to encounter a community who participates in ceremony and doesn’t make art inspired by it. Art is not auxiliary, she says, but rather “a visual representation of the technology that scientists are accessing through the mind.”

In addition to the works themselves, the exhibit at the conference will include artistic performances, panels on the intimate relationship between art and ayahuasca, as well live painting and a special performance of icaros by the Huni Kuin that are the songs of the paintings on display by their indigenous art collective. A central mission of the conference is bringing people who care about ayahuasca together, collapsing divides and inspiring meaningful collaborations. The curators of this exhibit have designed the art and performances – brought from around the globe – in the hope that it will serve as a catalyst for building those bridges.

Join us to explore the inner search for a better world at AYA2019! Let’s make a difference together.

Credit (top image)
Alexandra Compuesto -Ukraine – USA – Conception

The 2019 World Ayahuasca Conference program is shaping up, with under two months to go!

Thus far, we have people joining us from 35 countries with a program that is way beyond the previous editions in both scope and size. In the curated track, we’ve invited over 40 international speakers, and the community and academic tracks will feature 80 presentations.

The Ayahuasca & Visionary Art exhibition will be one of the largest in the world, with 200 artworks from international visionary and indigenous artists, including 10 original Pablo Amaringo paintings. There will also be book presentations, special film screenings, musical performances, Virtual Reality and Multimedia experiences, and a number of pre-conference workshops.

However, AYA2019 is will be much more than a conference. It is an instrument for social change – an opportunity to create alignment within the community so that we can co-create a positive future for these plant practices. It’s an opportunity to cross-pollinate between different social movements, seeding new collaborations. And, importantly, it’s an opportunity to shine a light on the intrinsic connection between the globalization of ayahuasca and the on-going resistance being waged by indigenous peoples against the destruction of sacred land – the Amazon rainforest – so essential for ecological balance.

It’s a time for us all to come to the table – including policymakers who understand the need for sensible regulation for ayahuasca that respects cultural diversity and human rights. It’s a time to share perspectives and engage in meaningful dialogue on complex issues. We’re pleased to be providing dedicated spaces for these discussions.

Our team and advisors have been working hard over the past year to pave the road for these strategies to converge at AYA2019, cultivating relationships with key people and organizations and building partnerships. Three concrete results have resulted from these efforts.

Meaningful Involvement of Indigenous Peoples

An indigenous committee made up of 20 indigenous leaders from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will come to Girona a few days early to meet, build solidarity, and build a collective program for the AYA2019 Indigenous Space. While there are many commonalities among the communities of the Amazon, it’s rare that community leaders from neighbouring countries have the opportunity to come together and share strategies and stories, and to build solidarity.

We’re grateful to be offering working with key organizations and initiatives such as COICA, AIDESEP, Amazon Watch, Sacred Head Waters, UMIYAC, Amazon Frontlines, Ceibo Alliance, among others, who have decades of experience in resisting the destruction of the Amazon and protection of traditional territories.

Engaging Policy Makers

We’ll be joined by several influential policy makers, such as Portugal’s drug Czar João Gaulão, who has been instrumental in shifting his country’s repressive drug policy towards one that is based on human rights and harm reduction. Policy makers from Spain, Israel and other countries will be present as well.

Additionally, AYA2019 will welcome UN officials, such as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the International Center for Drug Policy and Human Rights, the organization that led the newly released International Guidelines on Drug Policy and Human Rights. Joining them will be representatives from NGOs, Foundations, and experts in the area of policy and human rights.

Community Dialogue Sessions

Words make up our world – and it is through engaging in meaningful dialogue that we can generate new meaning together. AYA2019 will include a special session on ayahuasca and sustainability, and dialogues on evolutionary entrepreneurship, working as allies with indigenous peoples, exploring the recognition of ayahuasca practices as a traditional medicine, ayahuasca and reciprocity, and more.

For these sessions, we’ll be creating informative spaces for open dialogue with experts and stakeholders, exploring together how the conference theme of an “inner search for a better world” can be put into action.

AYA2019 is a coming together – a gathering of our diverse community where we can celebrate our diversity and commonalities. To build a better future for people, plants and the planet, an event such as this provides us with the opportunity to articulate our dreams, share our challenges, and to find allies and partners on the journey.

Join us to explore the inner search for a better world at AYA2019! Let’s make a difference together.

The UN has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages making now the perfect time to celebrate the many names given to the brew that has become know internationally by the name ayahuasca.

The indigenous people of the Putumayo have been drinking ayahuasca for generations and yet “ayahuasca” means nothing to them. Instead, the word passed down by the elders in this region is “yagé.” A distinction that goes deeper than language, but goes to the very core of their tradition.

Initially, this distinction may seem insignificant, but, as explained by UNESCO, an agency within the United Nations, words carry entire histories and bodies of knowledge with them. In the case of ayahuasca, yagé or the dozens of names that are used for this brew, these histories are emblematic of the diverse and deeply personal ways people around the globe engage with the same plant concoction.

That’s why the United Nations has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. According to the UN, these languages are disappearing at “an alarming rate.” There are 6000 to 7000 languages globally. Ninety-seven percent of the world’s population speaks four percent of them. The majority of the remaining languages are spoken by indigenous peoples.

Of course, the world would be a poorer place culturally if they were lost. But, UNESCO writes, it’s also essential to recognize that these languages are intertwined with “complex systems of knowledge and communication” that “should be recognized as a strategic national resource for development, peace building and reconciliation.”

Diversity of practices, diversity of names

This is certainly the case among the communities who have rich ayahuasca traditions.  The plant medicine is part of the practices of  approximately 100 indigenous groups in the Amazon, spread across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela, indigenous activist Daiara Tukano writes on Chacruna. These communities are stewards of the Amazon rainforest itself, which houses 10 percent of the world’s known biodiversity. Also, notably, their sacred practices with plant medicines are a mechanism by which they commune with this ecosystem and build resilience to protect it from outside forces. Each of these practices is unique.

Anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna, in his thesis Vegetalismo, lists 42 names for the ayahuasca brew or the Banisteriopsis caapi vine. (He doesn’t distinguish between the two.) In Brazil alone, the brew is referred to as uni, nixi pãe, caapi, and camarampi, among other names. Ethnologist Frederick Bois-Mariage, PhD, on his ayahuasca blog, also lists 19 names just for the B. caapi vine from Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

The word “ayahuasca” itself comes from Quechua, a language which, according to Bois-Mariage, was the official language of the Inca Empire and is still spoken today in various dialects, mostly in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. It comes from the word “huasca” or “waska” which, Bois-Mariage says, most agree means “rope.”

“Aya,” however, is interpreted by some scholars as a reference to death and interpreted by others as a reference to spirit. This minor disagreement, in and of itself, provides a glimpse into the large implications that etymology can have for our understanding of a plant and its meaning to different communities.

The importance of respecting various ayahuasca practices will be a central theme of the World Ayahuasca Conference this spring, where diverse participants will explore how their differences and commonalities might be leveraged to form alliances that support the protection of this cultural treasure in all its diversity.

The World Ayahuasca Conference will be a space where traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge are bridged – bringing people together in dialogue about our shared desires to heal humanity and the planet.

Imagine you went to a seasoned psychiatrist with an extensive resume and they told you you’d need to come back weekly for hour-long sessions to see significant changes. You might even need, they said, to come back every week for years. Would you question them?

It happens all the time – and patients don’t. And yet, the same respect and credibility isn’t always afforded to those who have worked with yagé for generations as it spreads across the globe.

This is an analogy used by Riccardo Vitale, PhD, a social anthropologist who has been working with indigenous communities to advocate for the value of their knowledge as indigenous medicinal practices grow in popularity among urbanites everywhere. Vitale, who works with an organization of spiritual authorities belonging to five indigenous peoples known as UMIYAC (the Union of Indigenous Yagé Medics of the Colombian Amazon), acknowledges that healing can be found in different cultural contexts, but is clear about UMIYAC’s stance: “Yagé, yes, is a spiritual ancestral biotechnology, but it’s useless without the guidance of the indigenous scientists who know and have learned through generations of studying and profound observation how to work with it”.

Elders and building
relationships with the plants

The training required to become a traditional doctor, Vitale says, is more rigorous than that of a university degree, demanding generations and decades of familiarity with the plant and the ceremonies that surround it. This prepares elders to properly support patients, or those who are sitting with yagé if they are confronted with what indigenous communities understand as malignant spirits or destructive energies. There’s an element, too, of inheritance, growing up around the plant and learning from family members.

The communities from the Colombian Amazon who are a part of UMIYAC – Cofán, Inga, Siona, Koreguaje, and Kamsä Biya – believe that the land itself and energy points on it play an integral role in giving these elders the power to have visions and to heal. They can travel and administer yagé abroad, but they can’t stay gone for too long. And they can’t just train anyone to do what they do.

Miguel Evanjuanoy, an Inga, engineer, and member of UMIYAC, says it’s important for the yagé peoples to have an ongoing relationship with it.

Building mutual respect
for diverse knowledges

“Yagé can give you the sensation, the feeling, after one or two ceremonies that you’ve reached a degree of knowledge, but that’s sometimes just a new life trial,” says Evanjuanoy. “It’s something that you need to continually process and it can take many, many years in order to reach a little bit of light.”

These are all conversations that are being had amongst the communities that make up UMIYAC as yagé – and the guardians of it – continue to face pressure from the outside world to share and commercialize their knowledge. In response, UMIYAC is now making an effort to reach out to the scientific community and to start a dialogue about yagé. It’s incredibly important, Evanjuanoy and Vitale say, that they work to “build bridges” and “form alliances” with people who share different perspectives. But it’s equally important that theirs’ is heard.

For UMIYAC, the World Ayahuasca Conference this spring in Spain is about continuing to do that. Both Vitale and Evanjuanoy, along with Rubiela Mojomboy Jojoa, one of the women elders of UMIYAC, will be sharing their knowledge as a part of panels and in the Indigenous Autonomous Space.

“We want to build a language between ancestral science and western knowledge,” said Vitale. “A communication amongst two equally important knowledge systems built on the premise of mutual respect and a shared desire to heal humanity and to protect the amazon rainforests and the planet.”