Guanara:
Ancestral Remembrance
A Ceremonial Immersion in Taíno Ceramics, Foodways, and Living Arts in Kiskeya
Kiskeya / Dominican Republic
October 14–19, 2026
Hosted by Sacred Taíno Healing
ABOUT IRKA MATEO
/ Sacred Taino Healing
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Guanara:
Ancestral Remembrance:
A Ceremonial Immersion in Taíno Ceramics, Foodways, and Living Arts in Kiskeya
Kiskeya /, Dominican Republic
October 14–19, 2026
Hosted by Sacred Taíno Healing
Miyari da akuasa kamekwana,
Hello my dear community, and allies,
I want to share with you a dream that has lived in my heart for many years: to bring forth Ancestral Remembrance immersions in Kiskeya, which I am naming Guanara, spaces of learning, ceremony, healing, and return, rooted in the memory of the land.
Here, Criollo honors the living culture of the island that we carry in the ways we live, cook, speak, make, and remember every day.
Guanara is a Taíno-Arawak word that speaks of a faraway place of retreat, purification, fasting, and spiritual preparation to receive knowledge. In that spirit, I want to invite a small circle to Kiskeya for five days of ancestral remembrance through clay, foodways, river, fire, and Taíno and Criollo living arts. Using Criollo to honor the culture we carry in the ways we live, cook, speak, make, and remember every day.
For five days, we will give ourselves time to live differently. We will be closer to the earth, closer to ourselves, closer to ceremony, and closer to the Taíno and Criollo living memory of Kiskeya.
The Heart of Guanara
Together, we will work with clay from the land our ancestors touched and shaped with their hands.
The shaping of clay into ceremonial pieces and daily objects carried beauty, nourishment, and spirit into community life. Traditionally, this work lived in the hands of women, who carried the knowledge of clay through the generations. In this Guanara, we will honor that ancestral memory and the lineage of continuity carried through clay, hands, earth, and fire.
With this Taíno ceramics immersion, I will be opening the path for the Guanara ancestral remembrance immersions in Kiskeya. We will begin by honoring clay as the body of Itiba Kaubaba, Mother Earth. It is the womb of origin, nourishment, and ancestral memory, where all things are shaped, held, and transformed.
Together, we will enter the living world of Taíno clay and ceramics by creating a Taíno vessel and a buren -- the flat clay griddle traditionally used to cook casabe -- exploring ancestral carving symbols, and building a Criollo ceramic kiln, part of a centuries-old firing tradition still remembered in Kiskeya.
We will honor the coming together of the four sacred elements — Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind — as clay is transformed into ceramic. These elements are sacred gifts that sustain life, connect us to the natural world, and remind us to live with gratitude and balance. To honor them is to honor creation, our ancestors, and the prayers carried through the land, the waters, the flame, and the air. Through this process, we will listen to the wisdom of being shaped, transformed, and returned to ancestral memory. Clay will also become part of a healing ritual offered to Itiba Kaubaba, Mother Earth, the womb of origin, and to Atabeira, who carries the agua dulce (the sweet waters of the river and the life-giving waters of the womb) as a gesture of cleansing, grounding, and remembrance. |
Ancestral Foodways
We will eat roots, fruits, yuca, casabe, and foods that have nourished our people for generations. We will enter the world of ancestral foodways by preparing casabe and uiko, the traditional Taíno fermented drink made from yuca, remembering that food is ceremony, nourishment, and a relationship with the land.
Throughout the immersion, the work will be held with permission, prayer, and gratitude. Clay and yuca will be approached as living presences connected to the earth, the ancestors, and the spirits that dwell within them.
We will eat roots, fruits, yuca, casabe, and foods that have nourished our people for generations.
What We Will Experience |
This Guanara will include: • Opening Circle and Communal Altar Building • Shaping a Taíno replica of a ceramic vessel • Creating a buren for casabe • Learning about clay preparation • Exploring Taíno ancestral carved symbols and the art of sgraffito • Participating in the building of a Criollo ceramic kiln • Fire Circle of Ancestral Stories • Preparing casabe • Preparing uiko, the traditional Taíno fermented drink made from yuca • Ancestral Journey: Listening to the Ancestors • A clay healing ritual offered to Itiba Kaubaba and Atabeira • River cleansing and grounding • Evening Fire of Reflection and integration • Firing of the ceramic pieces • Closing Areito Ceremony |
What You Will Create and Receive |
You will return home with: • Two Taíno ceramic replica pieces created by your own hands: a vessel and a buren • A deeper understanding of Taíno ceramic traditions • The knowledge of making a Criollo ceramic kiln • The knowledge of making casabe and preparing uiko • A culinary experience rooted in Taíno and Criollo cuisine • A relationship with the ceramic vessel, buren, casabe, uiko and ceramic kiln • A deeper connection with the land, the ancestors, and the memory that still lives through clay, food, river, and fire This is a ceremonial immersion rooted in remembrance, respect, and relationship. |
Who this Guanara is for
This Guanara is for a small circle of participants who feel called to learn in a grounded, respectful, and embodied way.
It is for people who wish to enter into a relationship with Taíno and Criollo living memory through clay, foodways, ceremony, and the land of Kiskeya.
Previous ceramic experience is not required. Participants are invited to come with sincerity, openness, respect for the cultural and spiritual nature of the work, and willingness to participate in community.
Meet the Instructors
Akutu Irka Mateo is an Arawak/Taíno elder, artist, ceremonial guide, singer-songwriter, and one of the leading voices in the Taíno reclamation movement from Kiskeya, Dominican Republic. For more than four decades, she has devoted her life to the remembrance, preservation, and renewal of Taíno and Afro-Taíno ancestral traditions through music, ceremony, storytelling, spirituality, and clay. As founder of Sacred Taíno Healing, she holds spaces where people can return to the ancestors, listen to the land, and reconnect with the living memory of Kiskeya. Through the Guanara, Akutu Irka invites participants into an intimate ceremonial immersion rooted in beauty, prayer, creation, and ancestral remembrance. In recognition of her contributions to Taíno cultural resurgence, she was honored as Taíno Woman of the Year 2025–2026 by the Taíno Awards in New York City.
Ramón Guillén is a master of clay and a guardian of Taíno ceramics. For more than 40 years, he has worked with clay as a living practice of memory, creating replicas inspired by the original people of Kiskeya and establishing himself as one of the leading references in this art form. His craft was born in Yamasá, Kiskeya, where he carries forward a deep family legacy shared across generations, keeping alive the connection between past and present. Through clay, he creates spaces of encounter with identity, community, and ancestral knowledge.
Babi Lizardo works with local clay from Kiskeya and has more than eight years of experience in the bioconstruction of kilns for firing clay, especially through techniques such as quincha, cob, relief work, and natural paints. She is also the creator of handmade pieces born from a deep connection with the earth and its ancient teachings. In addition to developing her own artistic practice, she has specialized in teaching the bioconstruction of ceramic kilns and the making of ancestral clay pieces.