Plant Healing In The Amazon
The Amazon Rainforest is the world's most abundant pharmacopeia - filled with countless plants that are used traditionally to heal physical, psychological and spiritual ailments. For the traditional healers who live there, they receive their knowledge as transmissions from the plants themselves during periods of solitary retreat in the jungle.
In this podcast, Gina Buenfeld - Co-Curator of The Botanical Mind - describes her experiences in the Amazon rainforest alongside recordings of Justina - a Maestra (healer) from the Shipibo-Conibo people, an ethnic group living along Ucayali River in the Amazonian rainforest in Peru - to provide a rare insight into physical and spiritual relationships with sacred plants.
For the last three years, Gina Buenfeld (Curator, Camden Art Centre), been researching traditional plant healing in Europe, Central and South America. In particular, she has spent time in the Colombian, Peruvian and Brazilian areas of the Amazon Rainforest learning about the plant-knowledge and healing practices of indigenous, and mestizo, communities.