Community Highlights: Meet Barakah Sahaiel of Birthing Our Ancestors

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barakah Sahaiel.

Hi Barakah, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been an artist. I have spent my entire life not only collecting mediums of art to express myself but also to use art as a mechanism to translate my stories to guide others into their own transformations. Over the years, these mediums have expanded across mutldisciplinaries from writing, modeling, cooking, painting, birthing children, raising children, and even more so in depth raising the child within myself to later create maps to guide others with their expression and thus healing. When I was three, my grandmother taught me how to read, reading me Maya Angelou poetry books and I didn’t realize it then, but the process of being stimulated so early by poetry diversified the many ways I would curate my life around art. I started modeling when I was 16 in Houston, Texas with Page Parks Corp and then later focusing predominantly on runway shows.

At the time, all I wanted was to aspire to write films and model in Europe. The summer I turned 17 however my early model lifestyle had caught up with me. Mental health that declined from ancestral trauma, being so young and surrounded by so many adult situations left me my body and my mind on sensory overload and thus began the beginning of my true destiny. Of course, the way every destiny begins to unfold (if you believe in that sort of thing or not) the present identity breaks down. In my case, it was my body, over the course of that summer, I lost the ability to walk. I remember waking up and random parts of my body would be swollen like my knees or my nose and it all culminated into stiffness so painful I couldn’t walk. I had graduated a year early and moved out on my own earlier that year to Austin, Texas to ground myself before beginning college the following year, but when I lost the ability to walk, I came back to my mum. A year later, high off the adventure of my own existence I ignored the signs of that summer and scuffed it off thinking about how “healthy” I presumably; was not taking into account my lifestyle at the time may have been deteriorating my body. Three years go by, I battled an abusive relationship, had my first child, divorced, homelessness and two years into breastfeeding, the stiffness came back. This time I was a single mother and when women have children, they are given a 2nd chance of living so I was just beginning my 2nd life and after a month of being in the hospital, they finally diagnosed me with Lupus.

An autoimmune disorder where the immune system essentially creates antibodies against healthy tissue. The doctor who diagnosed me at the time told me that I would have to depend on steroids and immunosuppressants for the rest of my life in order to have a normal life living without constant pain. I was 20 at the time and determined to not depend on prescription drugs as well as my bodies innate desire to heal itself. The power of the mind, because a month after I manifested an internship at a Gerson Therapy Clinic in Tijuana Mexico that introduced me to the Gerson therapy protocol, I later on my return learned about Dr. Sebis nutritional protocol and through one of my best friends was introduced visual art and painting as an outlet to cope with my mental health. It was the first time I realized that not only diet affected my disease, but learning how to cope with stress/ emotional trauma-affected how my body dealt with disease as well.

I was able to live prescription drug-free and without pain for four years managing my diet within nine months. I was addicted to how I was able to control the outcome of my own body and wanted to share this experience with others so I got my holistic nutritional coaching certification through IIN in 2017 and began a business as a personal chef and health coach. I later took my education further through a herbalist certification at wildflower botanical for north American herbs, doula certification through mama sana vibrant woman, and finishing my degree in public health nutrition. All the while still creating art whenever I could and whenever I needed. In 2019 I went public with a miscarriage I had kept secret for over a year and birthed my art curation company Birthing Our Ancestors. Through Birthing Our Ancestors, we facilitate art therapy groups/curated art-based events and use part of the proceeds to offer free holistic services for the art and holistic health community through our community partners.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This road is ever-changing winding, and as our society changes so do our needs and our ability to access holistic health. I wanted to create a platform that not only caters to the access of art from the creatives who are marginalized but also incubates a vibrant ecosystem for creatives that stimulates positive creation. Birthing Our Ancestors does this by offering an opportunity to the artist and the healer to experience art and healing without sacrificing their own healing/creativity. My generation values art and sustainability in a way that go hand and hand. How do we exist in a world where the artist who painted the mural on the bridge to celebrate those who made our community can only afford to live off the bridge or be tied to the social and economic restraints of society. How do we exist in a community where black and brown doulas who are also the teachers of ancestral medicine, breaking generational curses within their own bloodlines, and dedicating their whole body and attention to birthing our communities’ children, but can’t afford a doula to help them with their own womb trauma. We glamorize the modeling and music industry so hard in our community, but many of our artists are struggling with poor diets, inadequate sleep, and negative coping mechanisms like drugs and can’t afford to see a therapist. The other struggle is that we live in a generation where access to holistic medical care like nutrition, doula care, chiropractic care, and so on is not covered by traditional medical insurance which doesn’t matter much because many of our communities in holistic health and art can’t afford health insurance anyway.

It is often a struggle working with brands through our brand ambassadorship program and negotiating the funding with more established companies to offer free services for our community because people subconsciously believe that creativity is free and nonwestern modalities of medicine is a means of luxury instead of a means to manage lifestyle health so that you do not need more evasive treatments from the western medical world when really art costs many of us our lives while saving those who feast on it energetically. As the world changes, we are working through shifting the paradigm by glamorizing holistic health in a way that makes access a social norm. Holistic medicine is sustainable medicine that should be accessed as a vital part of our society and not as a luxury. And although conveying that message can oftentimes be hard to small businesses as well who believe in us as they navigate a lack of access to funding themselves for practicing eastern medicine, we are determined to partner with them, because we have found often times they are the ones who are putting their heart and soul into the medicine of their practice and not just seeing our partnership as one for business,but of course because this is a mutualistic relationship, we are so proud to see smaller businesses who partner with us to accept our clients watch their businesses grow through this community effort.

As you know, we’re big fans of Birthing Our Ancestors. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Birthing Our Ancestors current focus is on curated art events/ auctions and the brand ambassadorship programs with nutrition health, wellness, jewelry, beauty, and lingerie care brands. We create live projects and events that give the community opportunity to connect, collaborate, create art tools to heal and most importantly sell and share art so that that supports access to holistic medicine, care, and products to the marginalized part of the holistic health and art community. We do this by donating part of the proceeds of our event sales and auctioned items to the fund and raising awareness by hosting giveaways from our holistic partners. It not only allows access to our marginalized but also creates a stream of income to our community. I am most proud of how we are able to share our mission. We don’t always get wins, but when we do, we create family and we are able to share that family with everyone. It proves that people truly do want to help each other heal and it is more normative in our generation to believe and build a mutualistic community where we don’t have to be in competition because everyone is fulfilling their life purpose.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
A trip me and my mum took to Chicago for her birthday; we stayed in a really expensive suite in downtown Chicago and I was introduced to massage, acupuncture, and vegan food.

Pricing:

• 15.55 – The 28 day moon Journal
• 33.33 – The 28 Day Moon Journal 1st edition meditation coloring pages from local artists

Contact Info:

• Email: barakah@iambarakah.com for ambassadorship program for your luxury, lingerie, wellness, and/or holistic health related business
• Website: www.birthingourancestors.co for events, partners events, galleries and to apply to receive funds for holistic services
• Instagram: birthingourancestors and barakahtheartheaux
• Twitter: Birthingourancestors
• Youtube: Barakah the Doula Scientist

Image Credits
Gallery Photo Exhibition by: Alexandra K. Dietz