OUR STORY

Ancestral Arts is a community school whose mission to to empower Ancestral Reclamation through Ecological Connection through the honoring traditional Folk, Indigenous, and Herbal Craft Ways. Our work serves to prioritize marginalized communities with a focus on QT2s+/ BIPOC relatives.

History

Founded in 1997 in the backyards of beloved East Bay instructors, the school found its first physical home in Oakland at 3798 Grand Ave in 2014 where it was headquartered until April 2022. A vision of creating an educational space centered on folks of the global majority where all backgrounds felt welcome to come together and share their herbal knowledge and ancestral medicine crystalized in this space under the organization’s former name, Ancestral Apothecary School.

With ownership transition in December 2022, our Herbal Certification Program returned after 2020-induced hiatus relaunching Year 1 as a hybrid-virtual and in-person 9-month training with 42 students! New seeds planted, we are growing our programming to once again offer comprehensive clinical apprenticeship through a 3 year program, and continuing education into the future for herbalists of all levels. Offered bi-regionally in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, as well as virtual, providing access to students worldwide interested in our cultivated approach to herbalism. 

Into the Future 

A broadened arts focus also colors the new era of Ancestral Arts with programming reflecting ancestral crafts such as natural dyeing, basketweaving, broom making, bookbinding, and more! 

In 2024, the herbal certification will, for the first time, take place bi-regionally in Los Angeles and the Bay Area/ Oakland. The first step towards a new headquarters to be based in Los Angeles proper, Ancestral Arts will be the first clinical herbalist training program in Southern California once established. 

Join us in our mission to connect to spirit through ecology and ancestral craft.