Meet Keya (pronounced: kee-yah)

Creating Ecotone Kaua`i

Nothing is more humbling than formulating aromatic medicine from this island, for her power and generosity are epic. It is a great privilege to share the potency of Kaua`i's ecosystem with others who seek to connect and heal. When crafting botanical allies from our rainforests, waterfalls, ocean, and gardens I hope to renew a connection that is both ancient and enduring. Rather than harness or extract, my aim is to harmonize and embrace this relationship, and then share the process with you, through these living, giving, prismatic waters.

My path to the plants has been a practice of listening. As an herbalist I approach the plant kingdom as a perpetual pilgrim and disciple.

Honoring my Irish, Chinese, and Polynesian heritage, I have grown into a practicing Community and Family herbalist, lei-maker, and distiller of aromatic medicine based in Wailua, Kaua`i. I am proud to have been born and raised beneath the fragrant Ponderosa Pines and purple Rocky Mountains of Colorado, yet I spent much of my youth in Hawai`i, where the beauty and power of Kaua`i was imprinted upon my mind and spirit. Having had the privilege of working in 62 countries around the world, I strive to bring a global perspective to my local plant medicine practice in the Pacific.

The gifts of this 'aina (ecosystem) are profound and myriad--I am humbled by the teaching and traditions of the peoples who are indigenous to her body.

In the spirit of intergenerational healing, acknowledgment of historic colonial traumas, and reconciliation, I acknowledge the land and sacred medicine knowledge utilized in my herbal practice is due to Native wisdom and Indigenous tradition. Land is sacred, we share it with those who have cared for it before us, and those with the profound wisdom to maintain its power and medicines in perpetuity. On Kaua'i we acknowledge these lands were first cared for by ferns and flowers, trees and birds, and sea life; then the Kanaka Ōiwi and their descendants.

UNFOLDED BY THE WATER ARE THE FACES OF THE FLOWERS

Meet Keya (pronounced: kee-yah)

Creating Ecotone Kaua`i

My path to the plants has been a practice of listening. As an herbalist I approach the plant kingdom as a perpetual pilgrim and disciple.

The gifts of this 'aina (ecosystem) are profound and myriad--I am humbled by the teaching and traditions of the peoples who are indigenous to her body.

portraits by Jesse Recor Photography

UNFOLDED BY THE WATER ARE THE FACES OF THE FLOWERS

Meet Keya (pronounced: kee-yah)

Creating Ecotone Kaua`i

My path to the plants has been a practice of listening. As an herbalist I approach the plant kingdom as a perpetual pilgrim and disciple.

The gifts of this 'aina (ecosystem) are profound and myriad--I am humbled by the teaching and traditions of the peoples who are indigenous to her body.

portraits by Jesse Recor Photography

This website uses cookies.