By: A-yá Kukamíria
Prologue: OGA Voices — Amplifying Healing from the Margins
The OGA Voices initiative is born from the conviction that the world’s profound transformation resides in narratives that have been historically silenced. It is a space dedicated to amplifying marginalized, ancestral, and insurgent voices — from original peoples, quilombolas, traditional communities, and activists who resist, heal, and transform the world from the margins. The project seeks to decolonize the gaze, building bridges between ancestral knowledge and contemporary debate, so that the wisdom of the forest and traditional peoples becomes the compass for a more just and balanced future for all people. The following account is one of these echoes of healing and resistance.
I am A-yá Kukamíria.
I am Majé of my generation, the feminine of Pajé — a term that, for a long time, was silenced by history. For centuries, we, medicine women, were called pajés for protection, so as not to be persecuted by the religious forces that feared our power. Today, I recover that ancestral name and say, with all consciousness: I am Majé.
I carry with me the strength of my ancestors. I am the youngest member of the council of the Kukama – Kukamíria people, from the triple border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, where the waters meet and the spirits cross. I am a medicine woman, healer, midwife, benzedeira (blesser), raizeira (root worker), and also trained in shamanic psychoanalysis — a way to integrate ancestral wisdom into the contemporary care of the soul.
I travel throughout Brazil bringing traditional medicine — the true Brazilian indigenous medicine. I treat people with physical and spiritual illnesses, from myomas and infections to imbalances of the soul. I use the wisdom of the forest, the herbs, the chants, the dances, the instruments, and the sound of the earth. All of this is healing. Everything is energy.
I am an ambassador for the waters of the state of Amazonas, and my mission is to bring the strength of the rivers to those who need to remember that everything in life flows. My hands touch bodies, but also histories. And when I heal, I reverberate the voice of many women who came before me — women who healed in silence, hidden, for the love of life.
I live between villages and cities, to disseminate ancestral knowledge and build bridges. In the cities, I create medicinal garden projects in indigenous, quilombola, and at-risk communities. Teaching people to cultivate their own medicine is an act of sovereignty. It is allowing everyone access to healing at home, to autonomy over the body and spirit.
During the pandemic, I did not stop for a single day. While the world was closing down, we — female and male healers — were called to help. What healed here, I shared with other villages, and thus our medicine walked through the living networks of the forest. This is the strength of ancestral wisdom: it spreads like a root, not like a commodity.
I have been doing births since I was ten years old. I learned from my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother. They are everything I am. The gift is not mine; it is theirs, it is the people’s. When I help a life be born, I feel that the forest breathes with me.
I am also an activist. I walk for various causes of the original peoples, for the standing Amazon, for the forests, for the rivers, and for the beings that live there. Fighting for the forest is fighting for the people — because life is one, with many forms.
But being Majé is also walking on a very thin line — between the visible and the invisible, between the physical and the spiritual. With every step, wisdom is needed, because the responsibility is immense. We inherit this gift from our ancestors, along with their dreams, their pains, their frustrations, and, above all, their legacy of love and healing.
It is not always easy. I have received death threats. When I heal with nature, I touch the interests of the great pharmaceutical industries, the systems that profit from illness. Many healers have disappeared mysteriously. Doing good is, sometimes, dangerous. But I remain firm, because I know that this mission comes from before my own existence.
In the city, the struggle is different. I need to support myself, buy materials to prepare my medicines. Even so, I treat homeless people, peripheral communities, those who cannot pay.
I believe that healing is not a privilege — it is a right.
Ingratitude is one of the first lessons for those who walk the path of medicine. When we learn to deal with it, we also learn to trust. To close our eyes and follow. Because believing is also a form of healing.
Every time I see real change in someone’s life, hope is reborn in me. That is what moves me.
The Dreams That Transform into Bridges
Today, I dream of opening a chair of Traditional Brazilian Medicine within medical faculties, so that our ancestral wisdom is recognized and transmitted with dignity.
I want to create an exchange between traditional Brazilian medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, to show that the wisdom of the peoples is universal and interconnected.
I also want to expand the medicinal garden project to all communities that need basic health care and train more female and male healers across the country — so that healing walks in a network, like the forest itself.
My last great dream is to create a World Encyclopedia of Traditional Medicine — written by female and male healers, not by outside researchers. This is one of the projects that I am dedicating time to write in the form of a book, so that this legacy remains for our children and their children.
I am A-yá Kukamíria, Majé of the Kukama-Kukamíria people, ambassador of the waters of the Amazon, medicine woman, midwife, and guardian of ancient knowledge.
My word is a seed.
My mission is to flow like the river and heal like the earth.
A-yá Kukamíria is Majé (the feminine of Pajé) of the indigenous people Kukama – Kukamíria from the triple border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. She is a healer, midwife, and benzedeira (blesser), with the gift of healing inherited from a long lineage of medicine women. The youngest member of her people’s council, A-yá combines the millenary wisdom of the forest with contemporary knowledge, also being trained in shamanic psychoanalysis. Currently residing in Manaus, she acts as Ambassador of the Waters of the State of Amazonas and is an tireless militant for the indigenous cause, for the preservation of the Amazon, and for the officialization of Traditional Brazilian Medicine. Her mission is to bring ancestral healing to villages and urban communities, with a focus on medicinal and food sovereignty through medicinal garden projects in at-risk areas, such as the “Ancestral Knowledge” project.
How to Support A-yá and Original/Quilombola Peoples
The fight for the standing Amazon, for the rivers, and for the life of the original and quilombola peoples is constant. You can support A-yá and her projects in various ways:
- Direct Support and Projects: Follow A-yá’s channels for information on direct donations, fundraising campaigns for her projects (such as the expansion of medicinal gardens), and support for the writing of her book/Encyclopedia.
- Support Larger Organizations: Contribute to entities defending the peoples, such as the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and the National Coordination of Quilombo Articulation (CONAQ).
Contact and Essential Links
- A-yá Kukamíria’s Instagram: @aya.medicinatradicional
- Professional Contact Email: ayakukamiria@gmail.com
