Oral Testimonies of Traditional Medicine A Kamëntša Woman’s Legacy

This article presents an oral testimony of Mamita Maria Dolores, a Kamëntša elder and healer from the Sibundoy Valley in southwest Colombia. Through an interview, the author documents the intertwined dimensions of Kamëntša ancestral knowledge, women’s roles, healing practices, and the cultural significance of the chagra. Mamita’s narratives reveal how spirituality, plant medicine, storytelling, and communal labor sustain Kamëntša identity amid the enduring impacts of colonization, language loss, and social change. Her personal history—rooted in midwifery, uterine care, herbal medicine, and community leadership—embodies the resilience and continuity of Indigenous women’s knowledge. The article blends ethnographic reflection with lived testimony, offering a window into a worldview in which healing, land, memory, and womanhood remain profoundly interconnected.