Patzin
Respectworthy Medicine
ABOUT PATZIN
Patzin (Venerable or Respectworthy Medicine) has been formulating herbal formulas since 1998. Patzin, founded by Dr. Patrisia Gonzales, provides general and individualized herbal formulas to Indigenous peoples and QTBIPOC. Dr. Gonzales, or Dr. Patli, as the students call her, or Dr. P. for short, is sharing her formulas with the Plant Cruzer/Planta Móvil from the Indigenous Alliance Without Borders/Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras to show how medicine from the land can be made and distributed relationally and with the protocols that her elders abided by, which is at the service of the people. Because the medicine is worthy of great respect, the medicine making should adhere to disciplined protocols and the highest human conduct based on the values taught by the elders: respect, reciprocity, responsibility, relationship, regeneration and redistribution.
The Indigenous Alliance Without Borders/Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras (AISF) and the Plant Cruzer/Planta Movil project distributes plant medicine to Indigenous organizations and QTBIPOC-allied activists at no charge. The Indigenous-led project provides medicine for people in Indigenous networks based on Indigenous values of respect, reciprocity, responsibility, and redistribution, such as trade and barter or reciprocal exchange and donations. As such, this project also recognizes the sovereignty of the plant nations and their rights to peoplehood within the natural world. The PLANT CRUZER is a mobile tea/medicine station that can travel in a backpack, on a bike or in the back of a PT Cruiser or truck bed. The Plant Cruzer provides sustainable plant medicine from the desert.
The AISF has entered into preliminary partnership with other Indigenous cooperative agreements, such as with the Indigenous Institute of the Americas. Eventually we will expand the exchange of plants within a variety of Indigenous trade networks.
Gardens and projects allied with the AISF Plant Cruzer/Planta Móvil include: Oidag (garden in O’odham): The Giving Place at the Native American Research and Training Center at the University of Arizona, Las Milpitas Farm (Tucson, AZ), and the Indigenous Grocery Store of the Indigenous Institute of the Americas – www.iiamericas.org.
Those interested in adopting a formula may contact the plant keepers through this website. Tequios (Nahuatl for communal work for community good) are conducted periodically as a form of Indigenous capacity building in working with plant medicine, particularly the first medicines of the Turtle Island. Tequios are also done to gather resources to implement community projects. Traditional Indigenous herbalists coordinate, guide and conduct the medicine making.
By providing medicine within Indigenous communal networks and relations, the Plant Cruzer seeks to strengthen "healing as self-governance" within Indigenous communities.
"Healing is Self Governance."
--Kalpulli Ikzalli (AISF allied organization)
Dr. Patrisia Gonzales is a mother maker, baby catcher, Indigenous herbalist, and the inheritor of her great-grandpa's Nahua medicine. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona and Executive Director of the Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras / Indigenous Alliance Without Borders.
DR. PATRISIA GONZALES
(Dr. Patli or Dr. P)
Licensed Massage Therapist by trade, Native foods Harvester, Indigenous medicine crafter and seamstress, birth helper and womb worker. Mississippi Choctaw, Mexica, Yaqui decent. Raised with Tohono O'odham traditions.
TRACI FAITH GUH TONALIG
HUGHES HAMILTON
FOLLOW US #PATZIN
