Troca de Saberes
The Ancestral Knowledge Sharing Gathering
Working to preserve traditional ancestral knowledge and protect Indigenous wisdom, medicines and healing practices for the health of the future generations.
The Ancestral Knowledge Sharing Gathering is an intercultural meeting aimed at fostering collaboration, learning, and knowledge-sharing among Indigenous peoples of Brazil. Bringing together healers, midwives, shamans, and community members, this encounter focuses on the cross-fertilization of traditional knowledge, particularly in Indigenous medicine, cultural heritage, and spiritual practices.
The gathering is a woman-led initiative that spotlights the crucial role of Indigenous women as keepers of wisdom, aiming to protect and revitalize traditional healing methods, create supportive networks, and promote cultural preservation. To support this initiative is to take a crucial step in building collaborative, sustainable, and culturally respectful solutions in the face of ongoing ecological and health crises.
Our Story
“The vision for Troca de Saberes was first born during the Covid pandemic: when we, Indigenous peoples, began losing many of our elders. Living libraries gone.
Our midwives and shamans, the keepers of medicinal plant knowledge, began working day and night to prepare and send their medicines to other places and communities.
We were brought to turn to that leaf, that root, that oil, that plant, that bark, for the healing of many diseases. The forest asked of us to make use of the knowledge that our ancestors, our elders, our grandparents left for us. For it will strengthen our youth, the young ones, who will continue to preserve and carry this knowledge which is so important.
Troca de Saberes was created to reunite diverse knowledges. Knowledge that is not found in the city’s pharmacies. But is found in our living pharmacy: on our land.”
Leticia Yawanawá
Our Mission
Troca de Saberes is dedicated to protecting and preserving ancestral knowledge of the Amazon. Through advocacy, education, and hands-on projects, our initiative addresses critical issues like the loss and erasure of indigenous medicinal practices, traditions and knowledge. We aim to create lasting positive change for ecosystems, forest beings and traditional communities of the Amazon by fostering knowledge sharing and restoring justice to the rights of indigenous wisdom holders.
Preserve ancestral wisdom. Fund future health.
Preserve ancestral wisdom. Fund future health.
