Founder, Lead Land Steward
Ayni Herb Farm
FOCUS
Amara’s vision for building a Culture of Health in the Hudson Valley involves celebrating and centering the brilliance of queer, trans, black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) in building climate-resilient and liberated futures for all. They envision this work as the antidote to two major issues: a worsening climate crisis that puts low-income QTBIPOC communities in vulnerable positions, battling compounded forms of violence and systemic barriers that block QTBIPOC from accessing dignified, gender-affirming, and affordable healthcare and educational opportunities. Amara wants to interrupt these violent patterns by launching Ayni Herb Farm, a two-acre herb farm and educational space that focuses on integrating land-based ceremonies, educational programming, and growing a living archive of plant medicines that sustain ecological abundance. They are looking to connect with QTBIPOC curriculum developers and ecological land stewards to continue developing the educational components and physical infrastructure of this multi-sector project. Their approach is guided by their ancestral connection to earth stewardship that is rooted in Andean agricultural traditions revolving around ayni, a key Kichwa principle that translates to “reciprocity.” At Ayni Herb Farm, this value shapes how relationships are cared for within the community and the land.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Ayni Herb Farm (AHF): an Emerging Queer- and Trans-led Medicinal Herb Farm
Ayni Herb Farm (AHF) is an emerging queer- and trans-led medicinal herb farm rooted in Afro-Indigenous earth stewardship practices and healing traditions for liberation. These practices are sprouted on a three-acre herb farm and educational space in the mid-Hudson Valley that focuses on integrating land-based ceremonies as community-building portals and land-based educational programming for queer, trans, black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) herbalists and earth stewards, as well as growing native plants that sustain ecological abundance. We believe these are antidotes to the health inequities caused by the climate crisis that puts QTBIPOC communities in even more vulnerable positions and creates systemic barriers that block QTBIPOC from accessing dignified, gender-affirming, and affordable holistic healthcare. AHF is led by Amara Ullauri, a student of seeds, pollinators, and the moon, with eight years of farming and teaching experience focused on earth-based lessons that celebrate ancestral foodways and community resilience. This initiative is an affirmation to the process of reciprocity, trusting that as we work to heal the Earth, the Earth will heal us. In doing so, we can create a model for climate-resilient ecological stewardship through farming, education, and cultural preservation that centers the safety and wellbeing of the QTBIPOC community.
MORE ABOUT AMARA
Amara is an immigrant queer and trans student of seeds, pollinators, and the moon, casting spells of love and reciprocity through their farming and education work. With over eight years of experience, they farm and teach with the intention to heal the wounds of exploitation on this earth. They know this work is also intergenerational healing for their community of diasporic queer and trans people looking to reconnect with the Earth. Amara’s work is guided by ancestral roots that stretch all the way to the Andean highlands and down riparian habitats that feed into the Pacific coast. These roots have been nourished by deep earth-loving communal work in Lenapehoking and continue to grow along the Mahicantuck (Hudson River) where they currently farm and teach.
Click here to watch Amara’s Legacy Project video.
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