On the 7th and 8th of February we welcomed Dennis McKenna, the McKenna Academy, and Wade Davis to Xapiri Ground in the city of Cusco for two days of film screenings and discussion. This event concluded the Wisdom of the Leaf Coca Summit which was held at the Willka T’ika retreat center, in the Sacred Valley earlier in the week. Their summit opened up profound dialogues on the past, present, and especially, the future of coca where a wide array of Indigenous leaders, researchers, and policymakers will be disseminating the potential of coca in medicine, food, culture, and policy.

The first evening welcomed their group to Xapiri Ground to conclude the summit's week-long talks and meetings where writer, photographer, and archaeologist Peter Frost would present a reading of his reflections on coca and Quechua culture.

Also presenting that night were cinematographer Faisal Tisnés and Deginalda Morveli who shared an excerpt from "Kuka Saruy" by Lara Jacoski; an interdisciplinary project generating multiple products that investigates, documents, and preserves the original ways of ritualizing the coca leaf and its wisdom as a spirit guide worshipped by the Andean people.

Next, Wade Davis; renowned cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, photographer, and writer shared with us his experiences and extensive work throughout the Amazon and the Andes where his belief lies in the sacred connection between people and landscape. He shared an excerpt from his film "The Day the Waylakas Dance" showing the ritual procession with the Waylakas of Chinchero, Perú amongst whom the coca leaf plays a venerable part.

On the following day; through the collaboration of Xapiri Ground and the McKenna Academy, the sharing of ideas and deeper conversation was opened up to the public and our community here in Cusco. We were honored to host the Peruvian premiere of the short film “Biognosis, Bridges to Ancestral Wisdom”; a project of The McKenna Academy that aims to renovate and digitize an immensely important collection of 150,000 biological specimens currently housed at the Herbarium of the Amazon in Iquitos, Peru. The herbarium includes vital knowledge on how the Indigenous people use the plants for healing. It is their vision to make this reservoir of knowledge and wisdom available for future generations. The screening was followed by a conversation with the film’s co-director, Greg Hemmings and Dennis McKenna.

This specific project of The McKenna Academy is part of an ongoing process of research, planning, and funding. To learn more about this and other projects of the McKenna Academy, please visit their website.

The second screening we shared was "Dissolution" by filmmaker Luis Solarat, also a collaborator with the McKenna Academy, where he tells the transformative story of his personal journey of having left his full time job in London to find himself in quarantine in the Iquitos jungle during the covid-19 pandemic.

In the afternoon, we had a short break at our downstairs lounge to experience some delicious cocktails by Pikcha Coca Perú who produce a special distillation of caña and coca leaf.

And to close the afternoon segment, we shared an insightful Q&A session with Wade Davis and Dennis McKenna. The discussion began with a short summary on their Coca Summit held earlier that week and some information around the McKenna Academy projects and programs. They further expressed that this gathering was intended to be inclusive to all people interested in “moving the dial of coca towards liberation” and that the idea of the private conference was to pull together global participants who have been active in the space of coca research, medicine, chemistry, policy and cultural practices for an exchange of ideas, information and hopefully actioning on change.

We were engaged by Wade's discourse on the subject of coca from its taxonomy, to coca cola, to its dark side and the history of those who have been involved in this discussion of liberating coca for decades. He encourages the audience to get involved and further investigate all the initiatives both historically up to the present day in regards to how the coca plant has been scheduled and how the plant continues to be violated, he believes we are at a critical moment.

Dennis comments that the McKenna Academy will plan to have some follow up events virtually on this topic and that they are planning on developing a statement, based out of this recent summit, to submit to the World Health Organization (WHO); which has a very important meeting this March to reconsider the classification of coca, whereby they hope to be able to make a difference in public drug policy.

We'd like to make a special mention to our friendship with Dennis McKenna who over the years has been a mentor, inspiration, and ally to our organization. Having shared a few intimate speaking events at our previous Cusco location in 2018 and 2019, it felt like somewhat of a homecoming to be receiving him (and his Academy) here at Xapiri Ground in San Blas. We are forever grateful to have had this moment to connect knowledge and experience with all these diverse paths of understanding and look forward to our future collaborations together.

A big thank you to all the individuals who were present for this provocative gathering, to the Xapiri Ground team and the whole team at the McKenna Academy, to Bob Fisk and Annette Badenhorst for coordinating this event with us, to André, Greg Hemmings, Luis Solarat, Faisal Tisnés, Deginalda Morveli, Lara Jacowski, and Peter Frost. Our deepest gratitude to Wade Davis for his dedication to change in this sphere of global existence and the protection of Indigenous knowledge, and thank you Dennis McKenna for your commitment to the safeguarding of plant knowledge and being a bridge between worlds.

~Thank you to the sacred mother Coca~

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Revenue from this event is shared between the non-profit organizations of the Mckenna Academy and Xapiri Ground, in support of their work.

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