Books On The Garden

About the Event

Atava Garcia Swiecicki joins us to celebrate the release of her book and share her deep knowledge of herbalism and ancestral healing.   

Date: Saturday, October 29

Start Time: 1pm

Location: Garden of Fragrance

This is a free event (minus admission to the Garden for non-SF residents), but please RSVP.

Books by our featured author will be available for purchase.

Please bring blankets or chairs for sitting on the grass. Please be mindful of high chairs blocking others' view.

About The Curanderx Toolkit 

Arranging ofrendas. Brewing pericón into a healing tea. Releasing traumas through baños and limpias. Herbalist and curandera Atava Garcia Swiecicki spent decades gathering this traditional knowledge of curanderismo, Mexican folk healing, which had been marginalized as Chicanx and Latinx Americans assimilated to US culture. She teaches how to follow the path of the curandera, as she herself learned from apprenticing with Mexican curanderas, studying herbal texts, and listening to her ancestors. In this book readers will learn the Indigenous, African, and European roots of curanderismo. Atava also shares her personal journey as a healer and those of thirteen other inspirational curanderas serving their communities. She offers readers the tools to begin their own healing—for themselves, for their relationship with the earth, and for the people.

The Curanderx Toolkit includes more than 25 profiles of native and adopted plants of Baja and Alta California and teaches you to grow, know, and love them. This book will help anyone who has lost connection with their ancestors begin to incorporate the herbal wisdom and holistic wellness of curanderismo into their lives. Take the power of ancient medicine into your own hands by learning simple herbal remedies and practicing rituals for kinship with the more-than-human world.

About Atava Garcia Swiecicki  

Atava Garcia Swiecicki is guided by her dreams and her Mexican, Polish, Hungarian, and Diné ancestors. She received a BA in feminist studies from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the Indigenous Mind Program at Naropa University in Oakalnd. Atava has studied healing arts extensively for over thirty years and has been mentored by herbalists, curanderas, and traditional knowledge keepers. She works as a clinical herbalist and teacher. She is the founder of the Ancestral Apothecary School of Herbal, Folk, and Indigenous Medicine on Ohlone territory in Oakland, and she currently lives in Tewa Pueblo territory in Albuquerque. Her personal website is ancestralapothecary.com, and the website for her school is ancestralapothecaryschool.com.

About Books on the Garden Books on the Garden is an event series collaboration between the San Francisco Botanical Garden and Green Apple Books. On the last Saturday of every month, a different literary event will take place at the SFBG with a wide variety of topics, always coinciding with and honoring nature, botanicals, and our beautiful garden setting.