Salam y'all!
For almost a decade, Assata Hashi Ninak Aya (Assata Dela Cruz) has served her community in the US South, particularly around Africatown, AL as a Birth Worker, offering birth doula, postpartum doula, childbirth education and breastfeeding counseling on a sliding scale to Black and Indigenous families. It was through this community work that Savage Daughters was born.
Committed to birth work rooted in Black and Indigenous ancestral wisdom, Assata is continuously a student of her elders. One of these teachers that Assata holds dear is Panquetzani of Indigemama who offers a six month course in traditional postpartum, A Cerrar las Cadres which begins next week.
Assata was awarded a partial scholarship for this training but will need to cover the remainder. We are asking our community to cover the cost of this training so that Savage Daughters can return this knowledge back to our people and enhance our birth work offerings.From Indigemama's website description:
Birth keepers, health care professionals, + holistic healers: if you’re working to change our future + heal our ancestors by guarding the way babies come into this world, then join forces with me during my online traditional postpartum practitioner training. If you’re ready to carry forth our indigenous legacy of wellness, + work toward saving our own lives with respect + integrity, then A Cerrar las Caderas is for you.
From Assata's scholarship application:
My biggest goal in providing traditional Black and Indigenous postpartum services is to support and empower our mamas and families during the critical postpartum period. This includes promoting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being, as well as preserving and honoring our cultural practices and traditions related to childbirth and postpartum care. By offering culturally relevant and holistic care, my aim is to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, strengthen family bonds and promote overall wellness within Black and Indigenous communities. So much of our Indigenous wisdom in Africatown has been stolen from us due to colonization and anti-Blackness. I feel very called to restore those practices to our people. Through this training, I hope to learn additional healing rites to add to my practice as well as continue to heal the generational trauma within my own lineage by reconnecting to our roots.
Through supporting Assata through this training, you are contributing to Savage Daughters' legacy of honoring ancestral birthing traditions, providing culturally sensitive and affirming support to ensure that the journey into sacred parenthood is one of strength, resilience and connection to heritage for Black and Indigenous people.
Yakoke.
