Transformative Identities: Body Painting in Indigenous Amazonian Cosmologies
This presentation was given at the Program for Evolution and Spirituality Conference on Spirituality and the Arts at Harvard Divinity School in April 2025. It examines body painting within Indigenous Amazonian cosmologies as a deeply cosmopolitical and epistemological practice. Drawing on the framework of Amazonian perspectivism and grounded in examples from the Yawanawá, Assurini, and […]
Indigenous Medicines and Ethics: Whose Epistemes, Which Benefits?
This presentation was part of the “Psychedelics in Context: Politics, Epistemics, and Ethics” conference, held in November 2024 at Harvard Divinity School. Here I analyze the ethical complexities surrounding the use of Indigenous medicines, focusing on power dynamics and epistemic hierarchies that shape their integration into Western frameworks. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of power and […]
Indigenous Rights, Ethics and Psychedelics
On October 2024, I had the honor of hosting the third event in the Indigenous Awareness Initiative Webinar Series, titled “Indigenous Rights, Ethics, and Psychedelics: Who Holds the Power, Who Reaps the Benefits?”. In this talk, I explored how Indigenous rights intersect with the ethical use of psychedelics, focusing on key issues such as power […]
Integration in Indigenous contexts
In this presentation, given in June 2024 at Exeter University, I explore why the concept of “integration” is not traditionally present in Indigenous contexts. Integration, as understood in modern terms, refers to the period following a psychedelic experience and the practices used to incorporate its insights into daily life. This concept has become increasingly significant […]
Ancestral Intelligence: Insights from the Yawanawá People
This talk offers a rare and meaningful opportunity to learn directly from the Yawanawá People. It illuminates the intersection of ancestral wisdom, modern science, and contemporary challenges. The talk focuses on ancestral intelligence’s role in changing our future and understanding Indigenous medicines. This segment is part of an event held at the Blessed Foundation in […]
What is medicine? Integrating indigenous with scientific ontologies in ayahuasca research
This presentation was given at the Harvard Divinity School Conference on “Alternative Spiritualities of Celebration, Resistance, and Accountability: Engaging Our Colonial and Decolonial Contexts”, in April 2024. The revival of psychedelics in Western research raises issues about the underappreciation of ayahuasca’s sacred significance and the Indigenous wisdom associated with it. Such oversight reflects a broader […]
Reconnecting with Ancestral Wisdom: A Conversation with the Yawanawá
In this conversation, Shaneihu, Yawatume, and Utxi Yawanawá – who come from the Rio Gregorio Indigenous Land, in the state of Acre in Brazil, talk to students at the University of Exeter about their traditions, chants, and medicines.
Indigenous rituals, Amazonian cosmologies, and the psychedelic renaissance
In this conversation, Fê Gebara delves into the realm of Western psychedelic research and practice juxtaposing them with Indigenous cosmologies and traditions in the Amazon. She sheds light on the repercussions of Western approaches to sacred medicines, which are often characterized by objectivity, reductionism, and commodification and tend to ignore essential compounds of traditional healing, […]
Indigenous spiritualities: cultural appropriation or the last salvation?
This presentation was given to Harvard Divinity School – “Uses and Abuses of Power in Alternative Spiritualities Conference” in April 2023. Here I analyse how Indigenous spiritualities are transforming non-indigenous realities. I investigate the way non-indigenous people are using them to overcome health issues (i.e. depression), but also how they are being commodified for other […]
The social-cultural history and present of Ayahuasca
This presentation was given as part of the Breaking Convention at the Univiserty of Exeter – UK. Here I offer a journey through the historical socio-cultural aspects of ayahuasca, including its origins, past and present uses, and purposes. I discuss if and how Indigenous cosmologies and the practice of ayahuasca are being incorporated into the […]
