SAT OCT 5, 2024, 9 am - 1pm*
1-session: $70
Kick off Filipino American History month with Filipinx community herbalist, Nicki Garces. In this workshop, participants will learn about the cultural significance, medicinal properties and current socio-economic challenges of rice in the Philippines. Participants will also learn how pre-colonial agriculture rituals and practices coincide with the arrival of the amihan (north) wind and their integration to the observation of All Souls’ Day and Christmas. Finally, participants will learn how to make niu niugan, an Ilokano common rice dish usually offered to ancestors, and bibinka galabong, a common Christmas dessert.
*Participants are welcome and encouraged to bring snacks or a light lunch since the workshop runs until 1 pm.
Limited to 20 participants.
Nicki Garces is a community herbalist specializing in Filipinx plant medicine. Her first teacher is her mother, an Ilokana immigrant from the Philippines. She continued her studies under Angela Angel of California. Due to the local Filipinx community’s request, Nicki began teaching traditional Filipinx plant medicine in 2021. She also became a Karuna Reiki® master in 2023. Nicki is a mangtatawas, working on becoming a hilot practitioner (traditional Filipinx healer) through Hilot Academy of Binabaylan based in Bulacan, Philippines. Her day job is as an information management professional for a philanthropic foundation. Nicki can be reached through her Instagram account @nanangmichaela.