This wasn’t just another conference. It was a turning point.
It was the first time children born into ayahuasca communities appeared publicly in a major psychedelic event.
It was the first time the Omágua Kambeba and Tukano peoples stood together in the Global North.
It was the first time rapé was offered openly after being banned, without shame, and with deep reverence.
We, an organization led by inhabitants of the Global South—who survive daily and still remain afflicted by the colonial legacy and the prohibition of our sacred medicinal plants by the Global North, under laws that continue to stigmatize, imprison, and kill us—took the floor and shared our message with clarity, love, and a deep commitment to all beings.
It is time for the North to listen to the South.
In times of deep mental health crises and existential emptiness—where science does not hold the answers to all the ailments of modernity, where we are paying the price of "progress" and the so-called wellbeing of the first world, where Western science does not know everything, explain everything, and certainly does not solve everything—the Global South brings a new premise: the path forward is in family, in community, together.
It reminded the world that the psychedelic future will not be built in labs or brands alone—but in communities, forests, and intergenerational care.
