CTM Team 
An exploration of how cultural diversity, Indigenous food sovereignty, and ancestral knowledge offer pathways to nutritional justice. This post examines nutrition trauma caused by colonization and globalization, and highlights how reclaiming traditional food systems strengthens community resilience, health equity, and cultural identity.
A look at the medicinal power of saffron, its deep history across Persia, Ayurveda, and Unani traditions, and the vital role of women whose ancestral knowledge sustains its cultivation.
This post introduces the review of the book “Feathers of Wisdom: Words and Art Illuminating the Legends and Myths of Indigenous Women Throughout the Ages”. The review explores a collaborative work by Leigh Podgorski and Kait Matthews that brings together storytelling, historical context, and original artwork to present legends of Indigenous women from across the Americas and Oceania.
This post introduces the article “Emita. Healing Hands, Cleansing Hands: An Unexpected Farewell,” a tribute to Ema, a forest healer whose life and work were rooted in plant medicine and spiritual ritual. Through narrative, drawings, and poetry by Randy Chung Gonzales and Lucas Nakandacare, the piece reflects on the relationship between mentor and apprentice and the quiet transmission of healing knowledge through lived experience.
This post introduces the article “Revitalizing Kichwa Midwifery: Medicinal Plant Knowledge for Pregnant Women in San Martín, Peru” by Conzuelo Tapullima de Tuanama Tuanama and Laura Corradi. Centering the teachings of Kichwa midwife Mamá Conzuelo, the article explores ancestral plant knowledge, pregnancy care, and the enduring role of Indigenous midwives in sustaining community health and cultural continuity.
This post introduces the article “Oral Testimonies of Traditional Medicine: A Kamëntša Woman’s Legacy”, which centers on the oral testimony of Kamëntša elder and healer Mamita Maria Dolores. The piece reflects on women’s healing knowledge, plant medicine, and cultural continuity in Colombia’s Sibundoy Valley. It offers a glimpse into the living traditions that sustain Kamëntša community life and memory.
This post introduces “The Healing Power of Māori Women’s Ancestral Mark,” by Shonelle Wana. Drawing on Mana Wahine theory and lived cultural experience, the article explores moko kauae—the traditional chin marking worn by Māori women—as an embodied expression of identity, leadership, knowledge transmission, and healing within te ao Māori.
This post introduces “Nomadic Tribes and the Integration of Health, Wellness, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in India,” by Amit Rawat, Ph.D. Drawing on ethnographic research with the Raika, Van Gujjar, and Sansi communities, the article explores how nomadic groups sustain culturally rooted health systems shaped by ecological knowledge, mobility, and intergenerational learning.
This post introduces “Wombs, Washes, and Wisdom: Translational Ethnobotany and the Plant Healing Practices of Haitian Women in the Diaspora.” The article highlights Haitian women as stewards of plant-based reproductive health knowledge and presents translational ethnobotany as a model for community-centered research and healing. It also reflects on how collaborative research can generate practical resources that benefit the communities involved.
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