Alaska
1. Rita Pitka Blumenstein
Yupik mother, grandmother, great grandmother,
wife, aunt, sister, friend, tribal elder. Born on a fishing boat and raised
in Tununak, Alaska, Rita attended a Montessori school in Seattle for four
years. She raised two children and worked at many hospitals delivering
babies as a doctor's aide in Bethel and Nome. She has traveled and taught
basket weaving, song, dance and cultural issue classes world-wide, earning
money for Native American Colleges. Rita has participated in many healing
conferences where her teachings of the Talking Circle were recorded and
published. Rita is currently employed with South Central Foundation as
a tribal doctor using plant and energy medicine.
North America
2. Mona Polacca
Hopi/Havasupai /Tewa elder is working on her
Ph.D at the Interdisciplinary Justice Studies department of Arizona State
University. Mona has worked on issues of Native American alcoholism, domestic
violence and mental health for the elderly native peoples.
3. Agnes Baker-Pilgrim
Oldest living female member of the Rogue River
Indians, Takelma Band, originally from Southern Oregon, Agnes was chosen
by her tribe as a Living Legend. Agnes is an ambassador for our Mother
Earth. She is a spiritual elder of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and
granddaughter of Chief George Harney, the first elected chief of the Confederated
Tribes of Siletz. She is a world renowned spiritual leader, elder mentor
to the Native American Student Union of Southern Oregon University, and
keeper of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony.
4. Beatrice Long-Visitor Holy Dance
Lakota keeper of the traditional ways, great
grandmother, Native American Church elder, sundancer, healthworker for
people with diabetes.
5. Rita Long-Visitor Holy Dance
Lakota keeper of the traditional ways, great
grandmother, Native American Church elder, beadworker
6. Margaret Behan Red Spider Woman
Arapahoe-Cheyenne #003300, fifth generation
of the Sand Creek Massacre. As a child, Margaret attended the Catholic
Mission and Government Boarding Schools. Margaret is a Cheyenne traditional
war dancer. She has served as a dance leader in Oklahoma and in powwows
across the U.S. As a sculptress of clay figurines of twenty-four years,
she creates dolls that have taken her to many honors including shows at
Eastern New Mexico University, University of Wisconsin, Santa Fe Indian
Market and the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial. Margaret is an accomplished
and published author, poet and playwright, and licensed Substance Abuse
Counselor. She has presented workshops and retreats for women, adult children
of alcoholics and co-dependents. Currently researching generational trauma,
her interest is in cross-cultural Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome-trauma
of loss and grief, danger and fear, hatred and chaos.
Central America
7. Flordemayo
Mayan elder born in a small village on the Nicaragua/
Honduras border. Flordemayo's father was a local shaman and Flordemayo's
mother was a midwife and a healer. As her children grew, Flordemayo began
to work as a healer/ curandera. Flordemayo is a sundancer who considers
her Mayan heritage a keystone of her work. She studies under Don Alejandro
Oxlaj, a head of the Mayan Council of Elders, who convened the first Gathering
of Indigenous Priests and Elders of American in 1994.
8. Juilieta Casimiro
Mazatec elder, from Huautla de Jimenez, carries
the tradition of healing and ceremonies with the use of sacred plants,
the pre-hispanic Teonanactl, Ninos Santos way.
South America
9. Maria Alice Campos Freire
Madrinha of the Santo Daime Chruch, Mapia. Healer
with Amazonian plant medicine. Founder of Centro Medicina da Floresta.
Madrinha of the Umbanda ceremonies. Principal advocate for the preservation
of the indigenous rain forest heritage
10. Clara Shinobu Iura
Born in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
She studied philosophy in the university of Sao Paulo. Through her experiences
of clairvoyance and mediumship, she
was initiated through many teachings, from macrobiotics to Umbanda. After
helping with the curing of Pardrinho Sebastiao, spiritual leader of one of
the Santo Daime's most numerous churches, she was invited to live and work
in Céu do Mapiá, his community located in the heart of the
Amazon forest. Since 1999, she has directed the Santa Casa de Saúde
(Holy House of Health) Padrinho Manoel Corrente, Céu do Mapiás
holistic healing center.
Africa
11. Bernadette Rebienot
Born in Libreville, Gabon of the Omyene linguistic
community, widow and mother of ten, grandmother of twenty three. Before retiring,
Bernadette worked
as an educator and school administrator. Bernadette has participated in numerous
national and international conferences on Traditional Medicine. She is a
healer, master of the Iboga Bwiti Rite and master of Women's Initiations.
Bernadette has offered initiations and consultations for the past thirty
years. She is President of the Association of Traditional Medicine Practitioners
for Gabonese Health (U.T.S.G.) since 1994.
Asia
12. Aama Bombo
Buddhi Maya Lama, who is also known as Aama Bombo (Mother Shaman), was born in
the remote village of Melong in the Eastern part of the Bagmati Zone Nepal,
65 years ago. Her father was a renowned Shaman, and Aama follows in the Nepalese Tamang tradition. She became a shaman in a manner contrary to
the Tamang tradition, since women are not traditionally supposed to practice
shamanism. In the early days, her father restricted her in every way from
practicing shamanism. However, when her father died at age of eighty, his
spirits and also other gods and spirits started visiting and teaching her
to be a shaman, against the prevailing cultural values of Tamang society.
Today, Aama has achieved notoriety in Nepal. She treats (heals) around 100
patients every morning at her house in Boudhnath, near Kathmandu, who come
to visit her from around the country, as well as from India and Tibet. She
does not discriminate against those she heals, treating the poorest of the
poor as well as the Royal Family of Nepal with equal dedication and respect.
13. Mrs Tsering Dolma Gyalthong
Tsering Dolma was born in Tibet in 1929.
Because of the Communist invasion of Tibet, she escaped along with her family
from Tibet in 1958 to India.
In 1972, she and her family (four children) came to Canada as refugees. She
returned to India and became one of the founding members who revived the
Tibetan Women's Association (TWA). During the next ten years, she served as
an executive member of TWA and established over 30 branch offices worldwide.
In 1995, Tsering Dolma attended the Fourth World Womens Conference held in
Bejing, China. She faced many threats and dangers as she along with others
openly criticized the Chinese government and its treatment of the Tibetan
people, and especially Tibetan women. She now resides in Toronto and remains
as an advisor to the TWA.