Holly Bellebuono – Certified Herbalist, Educator, Author and Business Owner – to Speak in Wayland
Join the Walden Forum for a discussion with Holly Bellebuono, award-winning herbalist and author, to address the unsung women scientists, healers and collaborators of our time. Holly will take an insightful look at today’s women scientists, healers and researchers who are pulling from a core heritage of experience and sharing their knowledge with their communities. Their commonality is that they work with plants and they are profound influences on the changing face of world medicine. The forum will be held at 7:30pm on Tuesday, December 9, at the First Parish Meeting House – 50 Cochituate Rd, Wayland, MA 01778.
After teaching herbal medicine for two decades, Holly spent 7 years traveling and learning from women all over the globe whose work with plants carries on a centuries-old tradition of healing. Holly discovered more than 31 healers from 20 countries, including: Zoubida Charrouf, a Moroccan chemist who saved an at-risk native tree at the same time she created the country’s first women’s business cooperatives, pulling women out of poverty; Peru’s orphanage founder Mama Kia, who rescued more than 30 children from the streets and adopted them as her own, expanding her services to the Cuzco community with soup kitchens, classes and an entrepreneurial center; the Zapotecan shaman Dona Enriqueta, whose midwifery skills saved the lives of more than 2,000 rural mothers and babies over her 60-year career, and more.
Holly’s journey to document these community activists, pharmacists, ethnobotanists and physicians is relevant in the fast-paced world of science: “These women are profound influences on the changing face of world medicine. Our technology is advancing quickly but people are still subject to on-the-ground diseases, life transitions, pain and changing relationships. Technology is helpful but limited, whereas these women address life’s most important issues with humor, advocacy and a reliance on self and nature.”
We invite the experienced herbalist, the medical professional, as well as the average lay-person who wants to gain a richer and deeper understanding of how contemporary scientists and healers are approaching medicine from a perspective of heritage, and contributing to their communities around the world.
Holly Bellebuono leads lively workshops, symposia and natural health retreats that empower women toward health and fulfillment. In 2014, Holly shares the extraordinary research from her new documentary book WOMEN HEALERS OF THE WORLD: THE TRADITIONS, HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY OF HERBAL MEDICINE (SkyHorse, 2014, hardcover), inspiring women with the true lives of the world’s healers, scientists, researchers and business leaders. Holly’s dynamic and thought-provoking storytelling (of compassion, danger, innovation, secrecy, frightening defeat and brilliant success) combined with her expert health advice born of 20 years teaching herbal medicine awakens audiences to their fullest potential and motivates action. Her other books include The Essential Herbal for Natural Health (Shambhala Publishers, 2012) and The Authentic Herbal Healer (Balboa Press, 2012).
Holly speaks at universities, arboreta, conferences and retreats across North America and her work has been featured internationally in Taproot, Juno, United Plants Savers, and more. She is the producer of an audio CD series, “How to Use Herbs for Natural Health;” director of the retail and wholesale apothecary Vineyard Herbs; and director of the Bellebuono School of Herbal Medicine. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her family.
About the Walden Forum – The Walden Forum is a free public Distinguished Speaker/event series that brings people together to talk, listen and learn from one another in a civil environment. It fosters discussion about important ethical, religious, political, scientific, social and other topics in a live-forum setting. Dynamic speakers challenge and expand our views about the world around us and offer the opportunity for an open discussion of these issues in a convenient, local setting. Featuring world-class speakers on great topics throughout the year, the Walden Forum is a non-religious community program supported by First Parish in Wayland and others. For more information go to www.waldenforum.org or write to info@waldenforum.org.
Walden Forum is a non-profit 501c3 and is fully tax deductible. We are currently supported in part by Waylandbusiness.org; Staples; Baldwin Insurance; The Beard Family Foundation Wayland; the Cultural Councils of Wayland, Weston, Natick and Westborough; and Friends of the Forum.
