The purpose of the Seeds Program is to support community members in developing and deepening their relationships to their community, to their ancestors, and to Mother Earth. Through this course we aim to co-guide you in reclaiming your personal identity and your relationship with your families and ancestors. We encourage you to learn and reflect on what it means to have reciprocity in your families, communities and in your leadership. And we share frameworks that can guide you on your path as a novice to deepening your relationship with Mother Earth.
This program was originally designed as an in-person experience. The times we are living in have limited our capacity to meet face-to-face. However, the global health crisis has (once again) revealed the urgency of developing our relationships with our community, our ancestors, and Mother Earth. For this reason, we have spent many months working on transforming our in-person content into sessions that can be accessed online in a self-paced manner.
***We hope to make the course free and available to all through a Creative Commons License in the near future. In the meantime, all of the content is copyrighted © Ayni School.***
There are 3 ways you can take the course. When you purchase the Seeds course on this site, you will have access to the Full and Condensed options. Both of these options include interactive videos and supplemental material that you can go through at your own pace. The Seeds Cohort experience mentioned below has a separate process and cost.
3 ways to take the course
Take all 18 modules one-by-one at your own pace. The course is set up to let you take each module in sequential order. There’s a video for each module with exercises that can take 30-45 minutes to complete. The videos will pause automatically at each exercise and you can continue the video once you are ready. There is also supplemental material below each module’s video with recommended articles, books, and documentaries to support a deeper learning experience.
You can track your way towards completion in the progress bar. When you mark a module complete, you will see a check mark next to that module in the course’s table of contents.
means the module is completed
Check out the helpful tools in the “Online Tools” section below!
Complete 11 core modules as part of the Condensed course. You will get the core frameworks, teachings, and exercises of the Full Seeds course. You will still have access to the full course, but this option allows you to do the course in a shorter amount of time while still being intentional about the progression of the material and teachings.
As with the Full course, there’s a video for each module with exercises that can take 30-45 minutes to complete. The videos will pause automatically at each exercise and you can continue the video once you are ready. There is also supplemental material below each module’s video with recommended articles, books, and documentaries to support a deeper learning experience.
You can track your way towards completion in the progress bar and when you mark a module complete, you will see a check mark next to that module in the course’s table of contents.
means the module is completed
Check out the helpful tools in the “Online Tools” section below!
In the Fall of 2020 we led a group of people through an online Seeds Cohort experience. We went through exercises, ceremonies, and reflections together in order to process the content being offered in this Course. Every week we watched 1-2 of the modules on our own time and then came together for discussion sessions and activities related to that week’s modules.
In 2024, we are hoping to host another in-person cohort.
If you’d like to sign up to find out about the future cohort, please click here.
Watch the video below to explore some of the online features and tools of the Seeds Course.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we are grateful and could not have done this course without the teachings, guidance, and blessings of our elders. We were gifted with meeting our teachers in person in 2018 and supporting them to do workshops, film screenings, and gatherings in the U.S. Northeast. Alejandrina Calancha Monge, Zadir Milla Euribe, Alberto Manqueriapa Vitente, and Jose Huaman Turpo (in the order of the picture below) come from Indigenous communities and lineages from the Andes and Amazon of what today is known as Peru.
They have dedicated their lives to connecting with, supporting the thriving of, and sharing of the ancestral wisdom of their lineages. We see ourselves as ancestral stewards in relationship to them; as part of a continuation and as supporters of their work. We could not have done this Seeds course without them.
Yachay Seminar 2018
In addition to being guided by our elders, we are truly blessed to be connected to and to support the creation of ethnographic documentaries of Indigenous communities in South America by Jose Huaman Turpo and Alejandrina Calancha Monge. The Mysteries of the Andes film series seeks to accomplish something that has not been done before: to document the stories of Andean and Amazonian communities from a holistic perspective. It will be a collection of nine memorable films, three of which we mention and refer to in this Seeds course. We are currently working on the 4th film on ancestral music from across the Andes.
Mysteries of the Andes film series
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the song that is played during the title screens of our videos. We are grateful to Gustavo Santaolalla, musician and producer, for the song Desandando el Camino. You can find the song with the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XyexoTKoHI
This team of teachers created the Seeds Program in 2018 after spending time with their elders during the spring. They have run in-person cohorts every year since then and are excited to bring you the material in a more accessible online format. Here’s a bit about them in the order they appear:
- Fhatima is a daughter to immigrant parents from Mexico and the Philippines. She started doing community organizing in 2011 as part of the Faith in Action (PICO) national network and continued building organization through Movimiento Cosecha. In 2017 she transitioned to Ayni Institute to support and learn from the elders in South America, and has been using her skills as a trainer, facilitator, and coach to co-create teachings that build towards a reciprocal world. She is also grateful to be able to more actively focus on her connection to Mother Earth and to explore guiding communal ceremonies.
- Rodrigo has worked at the Ayni Institute since 2016. His drive to support the memory program stems from his journey of being an immigrant who has been unable to visit his home, Peru, since he was four years old. Rodrigo graduated from Clark University where he studied International relations and was named a LEEP fellow. For three years he worked supporting Central American youth with their asylum cases. He has worked as a volunteer organizer at Movimiento Cosecha assisting in the campaigns and assemblies. He was also a featured guest writer on immigration in the Nation Magazine.
- Carlos is a community leader that works to bring a vision of reciprocity into the world. He has been a community organizer in the immigrant rights movement for the last 17 years, building and co-founding organizations such as the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM), the United We Dream Network and Movimiento Cosecha. He also believes in a long term vision that in order to bring justice into the world we must renew our world cultures and religions to be closer to Mother Earth and Reciprocity.
Course Cost
Kindly consult our dedicated pages for detailed information on our pricing structure. We have distinct pricing tiers for individuals and organizations which you can visit by clicking the links below.
- Individual Pricing Tiers (paying for yourself)
- Organizational Pricing Tiers (organization paying for your enrollment)
These fees encompass the expenses incurred in course development and the dynamic server costs stemming from increased usage of our server-intensive online learning platform. Our pricing tiers are designed to ensure accessibility to our courses for a wide range of learners, embodying our commitment to making education accessible to all. Your support allows us to maintain and enhance this valuable learning experience for everyone.
Please make sure to consider any personal financial responsibilities, work, family, health, and otherwise when selecting what you can give.
GROUP RATES: IF YOU ARE INTERESTING IN ENROLLING MULTIPLE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS COURSE OR SHOWING THIS COURSE TO MANY PEOPLE PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM LINKED HERE SO WE CAN DISCUSS GROUP RATES.
INCLUDED IN ALL ENROLLMENTS IS ACCESS TO TWO VERSIONS OF THE SEEDS COURSE:
- The full Seeds course with 18 modules.
- The Condensed version of the course, which highlights 11 core modules.
Please note: If you fall into the Reciprocity Scholarship Tier, you can fill out our form here and we will get back to you about accessing the course for a reduced price.
Course Content
Book of Community
About Instructor
Course Includes
- 20 Modules
