During the World Ayawaska Conference held in Girona in 2026, OIOC had the privilege to share stage presence with Drug Science and Arno Adelaars to raise awareness about the importance of Indigenous-led science. My name is Melany Zarate, I am a biosocial medical anthropologist, currently I hold the operations of the Indigenous-led program (ILP). I had the privilege of being a bridge between Colombia, OIOC and the currently active ILP. My aim is to share with you my understand

From the Sibundoy Valley, OIOC shares how community support is strengthening Kamëntsá language and weaving education, native plant conservation, land stewardship, housing, and Indigenous-led learning. Discover what has grown together and how to support the next chapter.

Explore how the global expansion of Yagé/Ayahuasca can support Indigenous reciprocity, biocultural justice, community revitalization, and Amazon conservation.

Earthquake Relief Update: Helping Families Return Home On August 10, 2026, at 7:34 a.m., a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Colombia, with its epicenter in San José del Palmar, Chocó. Its force was felt across much of the country, with devastating consequences throughout western and central Colombia. As the days have passed and communities have been able to assess the destruction, the true scale of the tragedy has become increasingly clear. More than 260,000 people in 471 muni

By Arno Adelaars Reflections on Indigenous leadership, ancestral knowledge, and the changing relationship between Amazonian traditions and contemporary psychedelic science. From OIOC We are honored to share this reflection by our friend and collaborator Arno Adelaars, who has been helping strengthen dialogue between Indigenous leadership and the European psychedelic community. In this essay, Arno places the Indigenous-Led Plant Medicine Science Program within a much larger mo

For generations, the Kamëntsá people have understood that a healthy forest is much more than a collection of trees. It is a living community where water, soil, plants, animals, and people exist in relationship, each sustaining the others in balance. At OIOC, this understanding guides everything we do. What began three years ago as a small community-led restoration effort has grown into something much larger: an Indigenous Biocultural Revitalization Laboratory in the heart of

Rooted in Reciprocity, Strengthened by Ancestral Leadership Organization for Indigenous Outreach & Conservation (OIOC). Kamëntsá Territory, Sibundoy Valley, Colombian Amazon www.oioc.co Letter From the Organization For the Kamëntsá people, life moves in circles, not in straight lines. Our language, our plants, our rivers, our stories — all are part of the living weave that holds our community together. At OIOC, we walk with this ancestral understanding, guided by reciprocity

In the heart of the Upper Putumayo, the Kamëntsá Nation carries an ecological wisdom that has protected the Amazon for thousands of years. Their worldview — encoded in language, ceremony, plant medicine, and relational ethics — offers a living model of how humans can coexist with the Earth without destroying it. Yet today, the same forces that endanger the forest are also endangering the language that teaches how to protect it. Across the Amazon, hundreds of medicinal plants,

By OIOC – Organization for Indigenous Outreach & Conservation A hybrid reflection grounded in ancestral wisdom and intercultural science Kamemtsa Biyán Women A Forest Speaks Through Its People If the Amazon is the lungs of our planet, then Indigenous languages are its memory — the living archive through which the forest teaches, heals, warns, and guides. Across the Amazon Basin, every tree, river, animal, and medicinal plant has a name, a story, a function in the greater fab

The Kamëntsá language — one of the most ancient living voices of the Upper Putumayo in the Colombian Amazon — is at risk of disappearing. There are moments in history when an ancient voice calls out to us — softly, urgently — asking to be protected.Today , that voice comes from the heart of the Colombian Amazon, from a people who have carried memory, ceremony, and ecological wisdom for thousands of years. It is the voice of the Kamëntsá language , spoken in the Upper Putumayo

Indigenous-Led Intercultural Science Program: Bridging Ancestral Wisdom and Modern Research

OIOC’s Path Toward Sustainability: Rooted in Reciprocity, Growing in Integrity

February – June 2025 Rooted in Reciprocity, Growing Through Community Support For the Kamëntsá people, life moves in circles, not in...

Indigenous Reciprocity and the Healing Relationship With the Earth Most of today’s illness—emotional, ecological, and spiritual—stems...

Who Are the Kamëntsá? Indigenous Stewards of the Colombian Amazon In the highland forests of the Colombian Amazon, in the sacred Sibundoy...

The Roots of the Earth: Ancestral Wisdom as a Path to Global Healing Across time and civilizations, humanity has searched for ways to...

Sacred Plant Medicine and Amazonian Indigenous Wisdom In the heart of the Amazon, sacred plant medicine is more than a healing...

Ancestral Plant Medicine and the Sacred Brew of Yagé Yagé, often referred to globally as Ayahuasca, is a revered plant medicine used for...

Amazon Conservation Through Indigenous Reciprocity The Amazon Rainforest is more than the lungs of the Earth — it is a sacred living...

ayahuasca retreat, authentic healing expirience with Kamentsa indigenous people