Rituals of Sacred Sites

Rachael Knight

Rachael Knight is a lawyer dedicated to championing the collective land rights of Indigenous Peoples and rural communities.

Learn more

Rachael Knight is a lawyer dedicated to championing the collective land rights of Indigenous Peoples and rural communities. With over two decades of experience, she has collaborated with brilliant local lawyers worldwide, empowering communities to proactively defend their lands and ecosystems against encroachment by political elites and multinational corporations. Rachael has pioneered a transformative process that helps communities remember, revive, and adapt the ancestral rules and protocols for land stewardship. This work not only fosters thriving ecosystems but also promotes good governance and strengthens community resilience in the face of climate change. Her deep spiritual journey has enriched her understanding of land stewardship, leading her to view the natural world as sentient and deserving of honor and care. Rachael is currently writing a groundbreaking book that explores how communities are revitalizing their cultural practices of spiritual stewardship. This guide will inspire readers to reconnect with their own cultural land-feeding rituals and ceremonies, teaching them to listen to the land’s needs and to cultivate a deeply respectful relationship with the places they inhabit.

Pooven Moodley

Pooven Moodley is an international human rights and environmental lawyer from South Africa who weaves ancient wisdom with activism.

Learn more

Pooven Moodley is an international human rights and environmental lawyer from South Africa and a social justice activist. He was previously the Executive Director of Natural Justice, a human rights and environmental justice non-profit law firm, representing indigenous and local communities across Africa in their struggles to stop the violation of rights and the destruction of their territories of life. Before joining Natural Justice, Pooven was the International Head of Campaigns for ActionAid and Country Director for Oxfam Great Britain in South Africa. He has contributed to a range of struggles across the globe starting with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa when he was 14. He is a Council member of the ICCA Consortium (a global movement of indigenous and local communities protecting their territories) and the Chair of the Defending the Territories of Life stream working with environmental and land defenders. He is on the Board of Awana Digital which backs up indigenous communities and their territories combining ancient knowledge with other technologies. He is also is on the Board of the Institute for Natural Law and International Board of 350.org. He was part of the Global Coalition of Civil Society, Indigenous People, Social Movements and Local communities for the Universal Recognition of the Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment who received the prestigious 2023 United Nations Human Rights Prize for ensuring the UN introduces a new Human Right. Pooven co-founded the Earthrise Collective which weaves ancient wisdom, activism and alternatives.

Rutendo Ngara

Rutendo Ngara is a leading African Indigenous Knowledge Systems practitioner and transdisciplinary researcher from South Africa.

Learn more

Rutendo Ngara is an African Indigenous Knowledge Systems practitioner and transdisciplinary researcher whose professional interests have spanned from clinical engineering, healthcare technology management, socio-economic development, mathematics, leadership and fashion design; to the interface between science, culture, cosmology, nature and paradigms of healing. She is a Co-Founder of Ancient Wisdom Africa and Ancient Wisdom Foundation; and is a member of and/or advisor to a number of organisations dedicated to indigenous knowledge, activism and the protection of sacred sites and bio-cultural regions. Holding a BSc (Engineering) in Electrical Engineering and an MSc (Medicine) in Biomedical Engineering, Rutendo’s transdisciplinary focus centres on bridging Western and Indigenous paradigms – particularly as it relates to medical knowledge systems, science, the economy, the environment, gender and education. She serves as a spiritual coach, priestess and counsellor, and consults in workshop facilitation in areas such as leadership, personal development, health and wellness. Rutendo’s life embodies the harmonious convergence of diverse perspectives, centred on unity, healing, and advancing consciousness. She has a passion for weaving art, science and spirituality towards healing of the Collective and restoration of the Whole.