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ABOUT ACTIVE CULTURE FAMILY
a community comprised of various distinct strains of beneficiaL bacteria that work cooperatively to produce systemic wellness.
Active Culture Family is a basket, a place to share the things we are making and projects we are a part of. Through our art and design collaborations, classes, visiting teacher workshops, homemade herbal remedies, podcast and Green Witch Initiation Journey, we are dedicated to the process of liberating our collective creativity from unsustainable habits and placing it in service of generating inspired solutions for ourselves, our communities, and our planet.
ABOUT YAYA
Photos by Jamie Street
Yaya Erin Rivera… (sometimes called Yaya, Yayita, or Yayama as a term of endearment by family and close friends- Yaya means Heart of Heaven in the mother tongue of the Taino/ Arawak people of Erin’s matrilineal line. )…is a Folk Medicine Practitioner specializing in sacred plant medicines for communication and relationship. A Devotee, Artist, and Mother of primarily Taino and Irish descent, Yaya Erin was raised on a 100 acre tree farm in rural Connecticut, where she was taught from a young age the importance of living in harmony with the natural world. Believing strongly in the necessity of hybrid medicine to meet the unique challenges of modern mestiza life, Yaya Erin is engaged in the continued study of plant medicine, active dreaming, relationship sciences, nutrition, and Goddess traditions from around the world as pathways to responsible, creative, liberated embodiment. Yaya Erin’s offerings flower from an abiding belief in our capacity as human beings to steward and share beneficial culture based on health, creativity, reciprocity, kindness, compassion, celebration, and service to Gaia.
Yaya Erin offers multidimensional, plant medicine assisted, seasonal spaces and healing experiences designed to help you integrate all that you have encountered on your souls journey and come to live from a place of deep understanding of the way that each of your life experiences has contributed to the uniqueness of your wisdom and potency of your personal spirit medicine.
Yaya Erin comes from a long line of intuitive empaths, mediums, care givers, seamstresses, cauldron keepers, and earth stewards. She has studied with a wide range of contemporary teachers, including Garifuna Elder Arzu Mountain Spirit, Susun S. Weed, Shonagh Home, Trudi Jhinpu Hirsch, Laura Amazzone, and Carmen Vicente. Her study as an Herbalist in the Wise Woman Tradition, combined with her training as a Zen hospice and prison chaplain, and more recent studies in Kaula, Sri Vidya, and Shakta Tantra ( where the knowledge of the animists roots of familiar eastern traditions is preserved) have given her a unique ability to accompany you through life’s turning points and transitions as Rebirth Doula, Guidance Councilor, Cheerleader and Friend.
She has shown her talismanic sculptures, jewelry and other textile and metal art in hundreds of New York City, New Mexico, and California boutiques and galleries. She has taught art to Brooklyn teens, volunteered as an Interfaith Chaplain in maximum security New York City prison, led monthly women's Moon Lodge and organized retreats with indigenous teachers since 2007. When not working with her annual group of apprentices, she can be found at Río Cosmicó, her homestead located in Kumeyaay territory in the Cleveland National Forest of Southern California, tending the wild and raising her son and their dog Pepita.
Education
Yaya Erin was awakened to her purpose early through overcoming many setbacks associated with a hereditary chronic illness, and has been walking her path of self cultivation, study, and sharing in sacred service professionally for 20 years. For the last 15 years, her personal development has unfolded on the Red Road, while her professional offerings are focused on facilitating women’s ceremonial learning & earth skills circles, as well as rites of passage. You can explore the winding unconventional path her education, unlearning, and re-education has taken below.
2003-2005 BFA, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY Double major in Jewelry Design & Art Education. NYC Board certified k-12 public school teacher, including proficiency exams in child and adolescent psychology and pedagogy. Yaya Erin went on to spend two years working in the field as a public school teacher, sharing art and media literacy in a social justice themed high school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where she receiving an award for excellence in creative classroom management.
2007-present Arawak Studies with Traditional Garifuna Medicine Woman Arzu Mountain Spirit, Punta Gorda Belize & Various locations. Pilgrimage, personal & familial healing work, and one on one health coaching and spiritual mentorship
2009 Volunteer Chaplain Certificate, The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, New York, NY A year long training in contemplative care within the framework of Zen buddhism, with a focus on developing therapeutic presence and relating within the hospice and prison settings. Study included sharing eastern philosophy and therapeutic presence with incarcerated individuals at Rikers Island, New York City’s largest correctional facility.
2009 Shamanic Herbalism Certificate, The Wise Woman Center, Saugerties, NY Traditional wise woman residential apprenticeship including goat herding, fermentation, traditional nutrition, moon lodge practice, preventative herbalism, homestead skills and…more.
2015-2021 Traditional Tantric Studies & Initiations in the Shakta, Kaula, and Sri Vidya Lineages with Laura Amazone Extended solo and group Goddess studies and lineage practices including mantra, mudras, visualization, pronunciation, cultural context and more.
2020 Escuela de los Secretos/ School of Secrets Traditional South American menstruation and woman care practices with Grandmother Carmen Vicente
2020 Guardrails Training A three week community shared analysis of race guided by Milta Vega Cardona, a veteran antiracism trainer with 40 years experience in the field. Almost 50 participants from our extended community gathered together to take this journey.Participants emerged with a deeper understanding of how the construct of racism was created, how it continues to function, and our shared responsibility to identify and dismantle it wherever we encounter it, beginning with within ourselves.
2022 BIPOC Womens Leadership Mentorship A small group of individuals from the above Guardrails training where interested in deeper study with Milta Vega Cardona, and went on to participate in a year long leadership mentorship program. Participants continue to work together on various community based projects including the Medicine Mandala Apprenticeship.
2022 Cosmovisión + Idioma Arawako Karibeño, Escuela Ancestral A course for Arawak/ Taino people to connect as a family with the ancestral force of our people, including the study of the elements, plants and basic introduction to our island Arawak language.
