Support Indigenous Medicinal Gardens in the Amazon

We continue the advances on the medicinal urban garden in our place!

While we were cleaning the land and preparing it to install the garden, we had to remove some medicinal plants that already existed before, but needed to be removed. The good thing is that these plants were happily received by Shipibo neighbors to plant in their own gardens. The new is great, because, without foreseeing it and symbolically, the replication and promotion of exchanging and creating more gardens in the city is already underway.

We also found how some of the plants we planted are growing.Just to mention a few: the "piñon blanco", which controls diarrhea and acts as a natural healing agent; the "piñon colorado", which reduces fever; the "rosa cisa", which cures fear; the "mucura", which fights the flu; the "motelillo", which is traditionally used to have good feelings; and the "matico", whose leaf has faced the Covid-19, among many others. In short, a small and varied natural pharmacy is growing little by little.

In turn, we pruned branches from a huge ficus, which was blocking the light we need. Its large branches have been piled up and covered with soil to plant more medicinal plants.  Branches that, in less than a year, will be compost that will nourish our plants.

Although the road is still long, we have started at a good moment. Times in which the coronavirus has made us reevaluate the self-management of health in indigenous peoples.

Supporting this great project means supporting the replication of more medicinal gardens in urban areas of the Amazon region of Peru.

Thanks to your contributions we will achieve better and faster results!

Rao Banabo (medicinal garden) is a new project promoted by Alianza Arkana. We seek to strengthen the transmission of knowledge and the sustainable use of medicinal plants for the Shipibo-Konibo population, in the Ucayali region, Peru

Advances continue with our first stage of work on the Rao Banabo project. After Marcos, our project manager, designed and selected the most suitable medicinal plants to start germinating life in the garden, and before continuing with the process, we decided to ask an important question to an important person: What do you think of this proposal and what do you think we are missing, Yoxan Manuela?

Manuela (Jakon Rate) is a wise Shipibo-Konibo elder. For decades, she has helped and guided many people through her ceremonies and has also greatly protected the ancient Shipibo-Konibo wisdom on the use of medicinal plants. Hence, listening to her opinion and suggestions was a privilege for us.

We had a very productive day with Manuela. We started going through the whole garden, observing, identifying and naming all the medicinal plants that we crossed on our way. Later, we had an exchange about the properties and uses of the main or most effective medicinal plants. Also, she  helped us identify the names of some plants in the Shipibo-Konibo language that we only recognized by their regional spanish name.

Just to give a couple of examples, "Ronon Rao" or Jergón Sacha, is a medicinal plant that is widely used as a powerful anti-viral. Likewise, "Bana Boains" or Mucura, is a common plant used for respiratory infections and for washing away bad luck through baths. 

The results have been very satisfactory. Despite not having the area for large trees, we have a list of over 45 plants that we could grow in the little medicinal garden! With this, we are showing that the size of the land you have does not matter as long as we have the desire to care for them and keep this ancestral indigenous practice alive. We thank Manuela and the enormous work of Marcos and the entire Alianza Arkana team who put their grain of sand in this new process.

We invite you to share this project with your family, friends and contacts that you are also committed to strengthening the ancestral knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. We greatly thank you for all the support you give us.

We will keep updating you with our progress!