WOMEN, PLANTS AND HEALING CYCLE
"Every medicine is nature. The clash between the science of traditional peoples and Western science is something that shouldn't exist. We, as beings, inhabit the same Earth. Laboratory science only exists because, before, there was science from the peoples of the Earth, the science of nature. Health and healing lie in the earth, in the food. If we have good soil, we have abundance, we have health and we have life. Territory, good soil, water – these are the conditions for our survival. Ours and of all humanity. When we think of this house – Mother Earth – as a common dwelling place, we need to think of the woods, the forests, the caatinga (semi-arid white forest), the sertão (semi-arid hinterland), as spaces of existence, resistance and healing."
Maria Silvanete Lermen
This time, we were inspired by the knowledge of 13 women from black and indigenous territories in Pernambuco and Paraíba for the second edition of the Women, Plants and Healing study cycle, navigating ancestral knowledge about the earth from the wisdom of those who inhabit and cultivate it.
Each of these voices echoes not just a personal experience, but an accumulation of cultural, regional and family knowledge from each people and territory. Knowledge of immense value, which teaches us ways to health and good life (buen-vivir) based on the richness of each environment and its plants.
ABOUT THE CYCLE
This cycle was the first collective and in-person Selvagem field experience, which took place at Casa de Vivência de Maria Silvanete Lermen, in Serra dos Paus Dóias, in the town of Exu, which is located in Sertão do Araripe, state of Pernambuco. The event was held between 7 and 14 September 2022.
The Women, Plants and Healing II online cycle includes 4 recorded meetings, notebooks and complementary materials, which you can access via the icons on this page.
In the cycle's playlist in the Selvagem platform, we also have some visual recordings of the in-person experience with Silvanete.
Articulation and mediation: Marília Nepomuceno and Ana Paixão de Carvalho
Guest artist: Chonon Bensho
Organised by: Selvagem Ciclo de Estudos
Partnership: Chã – coletiva da terra
study material
PLAYLIST
NOTEBOOKS
PROGRAMME
VEGETABLE NOTEBOOKS
The Vegetable Notebooks series gathers publications on ancestral knowledge and practices of care and healing through the use of medicinal plants, blessings, prayers, and chants from various regions across the country. The notebooks were curated by anthropologist, researcher, and cultural producer Marília Nepomuceno and by artist, documentarian, and popular educator Ana Paixão de Carvalho, both from Chã – Coletiva da Terra, a collective of women from Pernambuco who promote training and research in traditional crafts and cultural practices with a focus on regenerative agriculture, socio-environmental justice, and autonomy.
Bilingual illustrated notebook on the care of indigenous women and girls from the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land community.
Illustrated notebook on traditional care practices for women, their families and communities during pregnancy and the puerperium.
Illustrated notebook on the knowledge of midwives and the use of traditional medicinal plants in the indigenous communities of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land.
A notebook produced from the accounts of midwives, prayers and shamans and the drawings of indigenous students during the meetings of the project "Reviving our culture and our indigenous wisdom", held in the mountain region of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land.
Educational cordel (storybook) about amphibians and their immense importance as indicators of the health of plants and ecosystems.
A book that expresses the ancient science of medicinal plants in an artistic and poetic way.
Testimonies, photographs and embroidery in collaboration with holders of healing and care knowledge from the community of Serra dos Paus Dóias, Sertão do Araripe/PE.
The Science of the Xukuru Forest – first notebook of the series Regenerative Cosmonucleation and Enchantment in the Management of Traditional Territories in Pernambuco
The daughters of the land Serra dos Paus Dóias – second notebook of the series Regenerative Cosmonucleation and Enchantment in the Management of Traditional Territories in Pernambuco
Knowledge of the hands, midwives and capoeira plants - third notebook of the series Regenerative Cosmonucleation and Enchantment in the Management of Traditional Territories in Pernambuco terceiro caderno da série Cosmonucleação Regenerativa e Encantamento no Manejo de Territórios Tradicionais em Pernambuco
Study on indoor plants and their use as a social technology to reduce pollution in enclosed spaces
Traditional practices of healing, herbs, backyards, knowledge and resistance in Bonito River and Macaé River Basins
Recipes and food processing as the winter cycle draws to a close
Intuitive recipes based on the use of flowers, and on reconnecting with the flows and cycles of nature.
Intuitive recipes from an agroecological and feminist perspective
Speech presented at the conversation circle "Perfumosas", during Selvagem 2019
Creations inspired by the meetings of the first edition of the Women, Plants and Healing Cycle
Medicinal plants of popular use on the south coast of São Paulo
Narratives and illustrations of healing plants from women's backyards from the Zona da Mata, north of Pernambuco