Shamanic earth-based wisdom reminds us of our interconnectedness with the earth and all the other living beings around us. We can discover ways to restore and strengthen these relationship through science as well. This podcast episode, from The Detour with Adams Davis, is called “Democracy of Species." It was recorded in May 2022, and explores the relationships between human beings and other beings, between humans and animals, humans and plants, and humans and the earth itself.
Robin Wall Kimmerer and Emma Marris pay careful attention to the interconnections between these beings. Whether they are looking at mosses or sweet grass, maples or wolves or humans, Robin and Emma are wonderful teachers, helping us to see our world and ourselves more fully, and challenging us to reconsider our role in this fluid and dynamic web of relationships and responsibilities.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, which has earned her wide acclaim. Kimmerer lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
Emma Marris is the author of Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World and Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World. She also writes about the human and nonhuman worlds, and the enduringly complex relationships between them for National Geographic, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Wired, and other publications. She lives in Oregon with her husband—with whom she occasionally co-authors environmental philosophy papers—and their two children.
Filmmakers Bettina Ehrhardt & Elisabeth Möhlmann invite you on an incredible adventure with a wisdom keeper and beloved woman shaman, Mama Irene, Healer of the Andes. This film documents Mama Irene, a remarkable 84-year-old woman healer from Peru in her daily life, drawing upon indigenous knowledge and traditions in danger of being lost forever.
We have a rare opportunity to witness Mama Irene’s secret healing practices, highlighting her passion to serve each patient who knocks on her door. We meet local women who have traveled for hours or days by foot through the Andes to seek treatment, and a medical doctor from India seeking a cure for an illness that Western Medicine has failed to help. We also accompany Mama Irene on an ancient spiritual ceremony to the Snow Star Festival, where thousands of pilgrims gather in Sinakara Valley high in the Peruvian Andes to honor the local glacier.
The film is not only a vital document of endangered wisdom, it is the story of an extraordinary woman, empowerment, and how to live in harmony with Mother Earth. To see her powerful medicine wrapped in the landscape and wisdom traditions of the Andes will deepen your appreciation of the mystical gifts and incredible strength of women everywhere.
Learn more
https://mamairenedoc.com/