Above image: The hand of a sacred two spirit connecting with a sacred tobacco plant.
Spirit Root Medicine People: Indigenous Two Spirit Lifeways is a wellness project based in Huichin, Ohlone Territory. We offer community healing circles for Indigenous & Pacific Islander Two Spirit/LGBTQIA+ people. We welcome all Natives, Pacific Islanders, Mexica, Yaqui, all relatives from the South, Taino, African, Afro-Caribbean, Tibetan, & all Indigenous folx from around the globe. Our circles are offered by Two Spirit community toward decolonization, healing and wellness.
mEET THE TEAM
Loa Niumeitolu is a Tongan poet, community organizer, educator and farmer. She is a farming teacher and Farm Manager at Tennyson High School Farm in Hayward. She co- facilitates Spirit Root Medicine People, a group that provides healing circles to Two Spirit/LGBTQI folx. She co-founded OLO, One Love Oceania, a Pacific Islander queer women’s activist, artist, performance group in response to how Prop 8 was used to disempower and separate her community. She has worked as a community organizer in many capacities with Pacific Islander communities, including as a Spiritual Advisor for Pacific Islander Men’s and Women’s support groups in Solano and Chowchilla prisons. In 2014, Niumeitolu co-founded Oyate Tupu’anga Project: Healing Indigenous Two Spirit and Takataapui Communities and co-facilitated it with Ruth Villesenor, then Chair Person of Bay Area America Indian Two Spirits. Niumeitolu was a key note speaker at San Bruno’s Skyline College’s “A Call to Consciousness 2019 Conference,” talking about being Tongan Takataapui. She was the July 2021 featured speaker at Dohee Lee’s “Just City-Just Land Solidarity Summer Series,” sharing what land means to her as an Indigenous/Takataapui/Tongan/Artist/Farmer. She recently shared her poetry at San Mateo Pride. Niumeitolu holds master’s degrees in English and International Development.
RaheNi Gonzalez is a Two Spirit Afro-Boricua Taino Ceremonialist, Sacred Artist, Healer & Activist. They were born in Lenape Territory (Brooklyn, NY) & currently reside in Huichin, Ohlone Territory (Oakland, CA). RaheNi is deeply committed to the work of healing our collective wounds of colonization, modernization & industrialization. They are passionate about creating sacred space & altars for the facilitation of ceremonies rooted in indigenous wisdom. They are blessed to have been walking on the Red Road for over two decades. In addition to facilitating circles for SRMP, RaheNi is a teacher at Ancestral Apothecary School where they facilitate workshops focused on healing & self care rooted in indigenous medicine ways with a focus on altars & ancestral remembrance. They are also a core member of the Healing Clinic Collective, a Huichin based grassroots healing justice project offering free healing services to the community. RaheNi has taught meditation in many settings including prisons and to women with cancer. As a caregiver, they have helped many in their journey to the other side. They have completed a year long Mindfulness Yoga & Meditation Training, a year long intensive in Commit to Dharma and a year long intensive in the North American Nonviolent Communication Leadership Program. RaheNi has over 2 years of accumulated silent retreat practice, they have completed 4 traditional vision quests & 20+ years of indigenous ceremonial practice & vipassana practice. They are also a Master Gardener & Indigenous Permaculturist.
Zamora is a Two Spirit Yaqui and Tongva feminist scholar and organizer. She has been a ceremonial singer for many years in their Two Spirit ceremonial community. Through participating in Native women’s drumming, Z has learned from other singers and drummers, sharing prayers, sharing songs and traditions. Zamora and the drum are co-founders along with Lorena Pena, of Casa Tia Luna, a medicine house for healing in our communities of color. Z serves as drumkeeper for Spirit Root Medicine People: Indigenous Two Spirit Lifeways, a BIPOC wellness project based in the Bay Area. Zamora has worked in community-based non-profits in grant management, and has taught college classes in Chicana/o Latina/o and Latin American Studies, QPOC Queer Theory, & Oral Traditions of the Americas at CSU East Bay, University of San Francisco and Stanford University. She is currently administrator for the Department of Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Mills College.
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