Yurata Yurakame, an intertribal group from Northwest México, representing the Yoreme, Wixárika and the camino rojo culture during the festival. This picture was taken after I translated their “Danza del Venado” - the dance of the deer, a ceremonial performance.

The production for this year’s Medicine Festival is in full swing. Dances, prayers, rituals and offerings will be shared by the sacred fire - Cultures merging, spirits from all directions dancing together. In this article I want to introduce you to my work at medicine festival and take you on a little journey into the cosmos of this intertribal group from mexico.

[Part I] The Dance of the Deer

The photo above depicts a moment captured during last year’s Medicine Festival. The intertribal group from Northwest México, Yurata Yurakame, just held their danza del venado, a traditional dance invoking the spirit of the venado, the deer.

Yurata Yurakame were representing the Yoreme, Wixárika and Camino Rojo culture, with their songs, dance and Temazcal ceremonies held during the festival. To some of you the embroidery, colours and patterns that the Yurata Yurakame are wearing might look familiar. You might even have seen it from the Wixárika people, who are also known as Huicholes (a term that can carry a pejorative connotation and is better not used).

Chavita, who led the dance, asked me to translate the talk and prayers during the performance. Translating is one of the greatest ways of learning and studying. My teachers who I usually translate in ceremony and sweat lodges have taught me well and shown me to enter a state of deep listening and neither interpret nor add anything but follow the original threads woven by the one speaking. This moment that the field of the prayer is opened feels like bridging worlds through words. It also creates quite a connection to the one being translated. Before and after the actual dance each of the family and group members of the Yurata Yurakame spoke and shared their prayer and words with the audience and I translated one by one. As you can see in the picture, several generations were present at the festival which gave it multi-generational/ and -dimensional depth.

Let me tell you more about the dance of the deer, Medicine Festival and my involvement in it below.

Rosalía Lemus De La Rosa, known as Mama Chali

THE DEER

The deer is a symbolic animal for the indigenous cultures of Northwest Mexico, associated with the origin of life. The “Dance of the Deer” is one of the most vigorous and dramatic in the entire country, and denotes singular animism by imitating the nervous and graceful movements of this animal.

This dance expression also brings together the powers of art and religion, in which a man embodies the spirit of the sacred animal that represents the huya ania (world of nature).

WIRIKUTA

The dance of the deer brought me right back to my time studying in México and specifically to a political movement that I supported just a few months prior to the festival. During my research travels in México at the beginning of the year, I was asked to translate press material for a political activation in Wirikuta, the spiritual center of the Wixárika people in México. It is a great mineral library of extraordinary landscapes, unique vegetation and animals that carry the mythical tales of the ancestors. It is under threat and the elders of the Wixárika tribe activated altars in Wirikuta and visited important political institutions in Mexico City to call for the protection of their land. International altars would get activated all at the same time to elevate awareness about that matter. Wirikuta is a sacred place that I visited when I was studying in México in 2014. I will never forget this moment, when I entered the sacred land, humbly and carefully on the back of my horse, to meet the culture of the Wixárika people and experience the medicine of the Peyote cactus for myself.

The Wixárika people have shared the virtue of walking, singing and honouring the memory of their tradition. Their belief is that humanity is like a serpent, feathered with consciousness, that rises from the sea and ascends to the summit of the Sierra de Catorce guided by the elder brother, the blue deer "Kauyumari".

The Yurata Yurakame are an intertribal group, bringing together different cultural lineages. However, they are connected to this lineage and culture and it felt omnipresent for me whenever I sat with them during the festival.

[Part II]How it all started

CONNECTING THE DOTS

In 2020, I started to be in contact with the team of Medicine Festival. We had envisioned to play there with Soneiro Collective and wished to find a way to contribute, as we have quite a history of festival curation experience. The seed was planted, but it would take another two years to come to fruition. Firstly Brexit converted work collaborations for non-UK citizens into unattainable labyrinths and then the pandemic brought in unforeseen challenges for international gatherings. We had to have patience. During my travels in Latin America, in early 2022, I made contact with Jenna from the Medicine Team again. Soon after I returned from my research trip in Perú in March 2022, I had a walk in Berlin Viktoria Park with Jo from the Wisdom Carrier team. We talked about our spiritual path, teachers, Vision Quests we have both done and these kinds of things that spiritual seekers on the medicine path enjoy to exchange. I remember this very moment, in which she asked me something that made my heart beat on a very deep and resonant rhythm. It was far beyond what I had imagined to emerge from a spontaneous little walk through this grey Berlin afternoon, but Jo came prepared and with a clear question.

Jo asked me if I would be interested in supporting the team and her department in particular and be the “Wisdom Carrier Liaison”. This role description basically means to take care of the invited elders, holders of ancient practices and native communities on site and during their rituals and offerings. It would entail production work such as calls with the invited elders and setting up details for the team of the “Sacred Glade”. Of course I said yes immediately, as it would be the most natural thing in the world to be asked to support such an incredible endeavour. But to be honest, I didn’t hide my immense gratitude and joy to be asked such a thing.

Once someone told me, “if we just get out of our own way, life presents us with far more magic than we could have imagined with our mere minds”. This was definitely such a situation. A few months prior to this happening I sat in ceremony with the Huni Kuin elders who came to visit Germany and a clear and strong prayer presented itself to grow into a living bridge between the worlds, between the continents - mainly Latin America and Europe - and between the academic and the ceremonial realm. I knew I was ready for that deeper embodiment of all the years of dedication and studying in these fields, but still didn’t know yet how. I knew that I wanted to work with an institution that I would feel aligned with, not knowing which form this could have, but I felt the strong pull to work with a like minded team on a coherent mission that carries this vision.

When I left an offering at a sacred well in one of my favourite little villages in the mountains of México, I realised that at this stage of my life I wouldn’t become a bridge. This would be too static. I simply can’t commit to two fixed points in the world. I thought this when I saw this little boat that I crafted of leaves that started to sail with the warm breeze and the current of the water where I sat. It made me realise that I will simply let the wind blow into my sails and become a ship with the same intention that the bridge has, only agile and free.

That day at Viktoria Park I knew, a new adventure had presented itself.

[Part III] What is Medicine Festival?

“Our vision is a world where nature is cherished, peace is revered and difference is celebrated; where humankind has reclaimed the gifts of gratitude, and guardianship for all life.”

“Medicine is about interweaving communities and bridging cultures – wisdom keepers, indigenous communities visionaries, artists, and solutionaries of all traditions to inspire and ignite a deeper understanding of how we can tread lightly, and live harmoniously as we support each other in the creation of the world we want to see – an equitable and thriving world.

Medicine is a registered Community Interest Company (C.I.C). All profits will go to help empower indigenous peoples to preserve and protect their land, traditions, and wisdom. The gathering aims to inspire and empower the deep regeneration of our hearts, our communities, and our world.”

VISION

Remember our birthright as a vital part of nature, living in sacred reciprocity- every breath – regenerating a world where all beings are honoured in their sovereignty, loved in their difference, and seen as vital participants in this divine interplay of life. Our vision is a world where nature is cherished, peace is revered and difference is celebrated; where humankind has reclaimed the gifts of gratitude, and guardianship for all life.

HOW WE WORK WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Medicine would not have come into existence without the significant input of our indigenous friends and we will always take counsel from them for as long as we exist, as well as put them at the centre of our production as collaborators.

We provide an online and in-person platform for people to learn from indigenous leaders from all around the world, because we fully realise that they are the ones protecting the biodiversity of our whole planet. Indigenous people are often the worst hit by climate change and natural disasters, and without them, we face an immeasurable loss of our collective understanding of how to live in harmony with nature, of protecting our forests and waters, and understanding the importance of keeping earth’s natural resources in the ground, not to mention the cultural importance of the spiritual earth-based wisdom they carry.

Through our online offerings to date (Medicine Sessions, MovieMedicine and our special events such as the Song Circle), we have directly raised funds for indigenous communities who have been hit hard by Covid-19, and for our partner organisations such as the Tairona Trust and Boa Foundation with profits going to help Kogi and Amazonian indigenous communities in need.

We co-hosted a special event on August 9th 2020 on the UN’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples with our partner Aniwa, featuring esteemed indigenous leaders from the Mayan, Yoreme, Dine, Yaqui/Apache, Huni Kuin, Ashaninka, Yawanawa, Hopi/Tewa and Dogon tribes to celebrate the languages, traditional songs and culture of these tribes and raise money for their community projects.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

For those unfamiliar with this term, the Oxford Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” These adoptions may be clothing styles or items such as headdresses, aspects of traditional rituals or ceremonies such as songs, tattoos, or even movement modalities such as yoga.

What makes cultural appropriation different to cultural exchange (which is normal in our interconnected world) is that there is an element of a power dynamic in which a dominant culture takes from one it has oppressed for its own advantage (money, fashion, status etc), which the other culture specifically finds offensive or exploitative.

We recognise that festival-goers do not have bad intentions and may be engaging in cultural appropriation unintentionally, and we see this as an opportunity for education and discussion. We have a programming focus on this and related diversity topics in our programming, and also hope that people will choose to explore this important matter when conversing with people at the event.

Medicine Festival offers a safe place to have these important and relevant conversations, and to learn exactly why we must honour other cultures, and do all we can to educate ourselves about the struggles they face and do what we can to be allies and supportive where needed with regards to raising awareness when tackling cultural appropriation and systemic racism.

[source of the texts in Part III www.medicinefestival.com]

Invitation

Join us at this years Medicine Festival.

Also have a look at my calendar - I am bringing several wisdom carriers from Perú to Germany and host retreats with them. Most of the dates will be published on my calendar, but not all of them. Read more in my newsletter (German) or join Soneiro’s newsletter (English) to receive invitations that are not shared publically.

MEDICINE FESTIVAL