Ayasmina

Professional Translator and Interpreter
Fluent in 6 Languages

Ayasmina is a professional translator and interpreter fluent in six languages, whose lifelong passion for people and travel is dovetailed with her longstanding interest in spirit medicine from around the world. Over the past six years, Ayasmina's focus has been on South American naturopathy, in particular the traditions and techniques of Amazonian plant medicine, known as vegetalismo. 

Both in Peru as well as in Canada, she has served as the translator and interpreter for several shamanic seminars and retreats, most notably the International Conference on Amazonian Shamanism, held in Iquitos, Peru every summer.  .  This year, she will also be facilitating at the first annual Amazon Curandero Seminar, slated for April, and the first annual Convergence Conference, slated for July, both taking place in Iquitos.

Ayasmina earned her B.A. from McGill University, where she graduated suma cum laude, and completed a degree in Law in 1995.  She is at present finishing her practicum at a firm she initiated with two of her former classmates in October 2007.  She is slated to become a member of the Canadian Bar Association in 2009 and, in addition to the practice of family law and mediation, is engaged in the areas of social justice, human rights, drug policy reform, and civil liberties.

One of her main contributions in the area of natural medicine is in providing advice, information, education, advocacy, and strategy on the subject of freedom of conscience, indigenous rights, the ethics of care, and the de-regulation of sacramental and therapeutic plants.  Ayasmina recently gave an interview on these topics, which can be heard at: http://kmo.livejournal.com/325265.html

Tom McKinnon is an established visual artist who has exhibited multi-media performance works at major venues nationally and internationally, notably at The Kitchen, NYC 90 and at PS 1, NYC 92. He has been featured and reviewed in ArtForum and Art in America. He has taught Fine Art at Northern College in the subarctic community of Moosonee, Multi-Media at the University of Windsor, and Sculpture at Okanagan University College in Kelowna. His work explores the role of narrative structure in cognition, identity, and belief.  He is the video archivist for the Annual Amazonian Shamanism Conference.

Not surprisingly, Ayasmina and Tom met at a medicine gathering, and a long-term friendship, partnership, and vision was instantly forged.  Since 2005, Ayasmina and Tom have been collaborating on various projects around Amazonian medicine, culture, and ecology. They recently completed a radio documentary entitled "In Search of the Divine Vegetal", which explores the nexus between Western and Indigenous cosmologies in relation to plant intelligence, and which was met with considerable interest and support when it aired worldwide in November 2007.  A podcast of the program has now been released through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and is available for download at the following site: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcast.html

Ayasmina and Tom are currently in the process of converting their radio documentary into a film by the same name and, to this end, have prepared a demo-length version of their video documentary, which is featured here: http://www.dailymotion.com/related/5497559/video/x3c6rn_in-search-of-the-divine-vegetalayah

This documentary, like its audio counterpart, aspires to engender a species of hybrid consciousness consisting of Western science, Indigenous technology, phytospirituality, and the Great Unknown.  Heading into the final stages of production and wishing to remain independent, Ayasmina and Tom are looking to raise the final $20,000.00 necessary to bring their vision to fruition.

Ayasmina and Tom feel it has been well-established that nature offers invaluable diagnostic and healing tools. Such foundation being laid, they are eager for us to learn to implement this age-old knowledge in order to navigate uncharted esoteric realms and produce meaningful and innovative outcomes for the modern individual and world-to-be.