Recently, in the West, these medicines have been used as therapies for depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), creating a burgeoning multibillion-dollar industry. Sacred Indigenous traditions include ceremonies that practice these medicines not only to heal people, Celidwen said, “but to heal our planet by opening the spiritual gateways to the Ancestors (past and emerging) and promote transcendence through deep connections with Nature, the Universe, and Spirit.” have been engaged as “Spirit medicines” by Indigenous communities around the world for centuries.

Psychedelic medicines - which are still federally criminalized in the U.S. So, my research is committed to the reclamation, revitalization and transmission of our Indigenous wisdoms.” A burgeoning industry

“Indigenous voices bring forth actions of reverence, kindness, and compassion.

“The authority of the Indigenous Peoples must be recognized and respected as equal holders of sophisticated systems of contemplative insight,” said Celidwen, who previously served as a liaison of Indigenous affairs at the United Nations. Yuria Celidwen spoke to a packed audience at Zellerbach Hall on April 8 about her research around the “Ethics of Belonging.” (Video by Bioneers) The paper, “ Ethical principles of traditional Indigenous medicine to guide western psychedelic research and practice,” highlights how the new Western psychedelic movement can embrace and collaborate with the Indigenous plant medicine traditions that preceded it. She recently led a study published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health - Americas. Today, as a senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, Celidwen is exploring how Western institutions can ethically approach the growing research and use of psychedelics as viable medical therapies. Those great disparities, Celidwen said, are formative to the research and work she has pursued for the last two decades, collaborating and building coalitions with Indigenous communities from around the world to create community spaces and policy that promote Indigenous Peoples’ voices and their time-honored principles. A result of Indigenous communities’ historical colonial oppression, genocide and “the exploitation of our Lands and age-old traditions, and the resilient, Mother Earth-oriented and tightly weaved communities and traditions we preserve.” “ we carry intergenerational trauma, and also intergenerational bliss,” she added. Berkeley News is highlighting innovators on campus that bring unique societal benefit in work and research.

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