Our Vision

Our vision is to support the holistic health and wellness of the multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-sector, multi-faith movement towards liberation. In order to dismantle White Supremacy that is grounded in racial capitalism, colonialism, and orientalism, we need to heal our root system by telling truthful history, reconnecting with the medicine of our cultures and traditions, and cultivating deep relationships across differences. We need to relearn how to interlock our roots with each other to build our collective resiliency.

Who We Are

We are a Black, Indigenous, People of Color women-led project, sponsored by Canticle Farm, in Oakland CA. We bring together a collection of 20 seasoned BIPOC healers, organizers, activists, and culture bearers from across the country to cultivate our collective wellness through cultural healing practices and liberatory learning. We run embodied and experiential anti-oppression learning circles and healing circles rooted in BIPOC cultural wisdom and practices.

You can read the full biographies of our members at this link.

Our Work

We offer an embodied learning and healing pedagogy, rooted in Black, Indigenous, API, and People of Color cultural wisdom and practice. We believe that the wisdom of those most impacted by the systems of oppression must inform the “what” and the “how” of social transformation. We facilitate workshops for both communities of color and dominant-culture communities. We also offer individual and group healing sessions in various modalities. In the past year, we worked with and strengthened the capacity of grassroots activists, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations.

Street Academy: facilitates embodied and experiential healing-based anti-oppression learning circles with beloved street scholars, healers, organizers, and activists in our communities.

Relearning truthful history
Reconnecting with our traditions and cultures - healing what was broken, the transmission of the medicine from one generation to the next
Using healing tools developed in our Justice Sanctuary simultaneously while transforming systems of oppression

Justice Sanctuary: offers individual and group healing sessions in various modalities. Our BIPOC practitioners offer energy work, spiritual accompaniment, acupuncture, herbalism, astrology, numerology, body wisdom movement practice, and counseling.

We see wellness as a balancing of the four quadrants of the healing basket - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
Community-based - so much of the wounding gets internalized in isolation, sharing and witnessing stories provide radical hope, a catalyst for healing

Mycelium Network: to grow the wellness of our multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-sector, multi-faith movement towards liberation, we need to build a deeper way of being, connecting, and resourcing - much like a mycelium network. Our goal is to bring these groups together to engage in meaningful cross-cultural, cross-racial, cross-coalitional movement building and resourcing that is grounded in relationships, healing, and abundance.

How: Biannual retreats for movement leaders to come together for respite, healing, learning, and networking.

Who: Movement leaders from across the country, working on various intersectional issues including immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, carceral reform, affordable housing, education justice, economic justice, racial justice, transnational human rights, Black self-determination & reparations, education reform, gender & reproductive justice.

Our Past Offerings

We have hosted various community healing events, in-person and virtual. Some of them include:

“Strengthening the Mind: A Toolkit for Your Healing Basket” (4-week series) - integrating the wisdom of our traditions with tools to nourish our bodies while we work toward dismantling all forms of oppression.
“Remember, Reclaim, Restore, Breathe” (5-week series) - sharing traditional wisdom and healing practices such as meditation, plant seeds for medicine, poetry, movement medicine, sound & silence
“Plant Medicine for the People: Dreams & Rest” (2-week series)- learning about plant allies and how to make herbal medicines to nourish sleep and dream cycles during times of collective unrest.
“Weaving the Basket of Wellness” - healing tools to build our collective wellness such as five elements embodied acupressure, meditation & visualization, writing & art-making
A two-day DEI faculty retreat for Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Staff wellness workshop for Girls Leadership, Inc (an equity consulting firm)
Staff wellness retreat for Yu Ming Charter School, Oakland
A 6-week wellness series for faculty of the Mills College School of Education

Some of the organizations we have facilitated anti-oppression workshops and retreats: Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Berkeley Graduate Union), Mills College School of Education, Girls Leadership Inc., Yu Ming Charter School (Oakland)

Funding Needs

After 6 years of 100% volunteer-run programming, we are raising money to bring on 4 paid part-time collective core members to deepen our infrastructure as an organization, launch a biannual BIPOC movement leader’s retreat, and increase our offerings to the community. Ideally, we are looking for funding partners who can make a multi-year commitment of unrestricted general operating support. Please consider giving a tax-deductible one-time or reoccurring donation and/or sharing our work with your networks!

In community,

Sacred Roots Core Leaders:
Martha Martinez,
Angelita Di Natalie,
Colleen "Coke" Tani,
Donna Battle,
Yu-Shuan Tarango-Sho

Sacred Roots Giving Campaign

By Sacred Roots, Oakland

Sacred Roots Giving Campaign

Help us build our organization and expand programming!