The work so far

The work begins with a vision, not a plan. A few months after a Christmas concert in Amsterdam, in March 2012, Dennis Notten drank medicine that had been cooked in Brazil, and saw the work that would take the next thirteen years. The medicine that night had been brewed by Davi Nunes de Paula in Cruzeiro do Sul. In December 2026, fourteen years later, Dennis will cook alongside him for the first time, in the city that vision named.

First arrival in Mutum, in Yawanawá territory in Acre, Brazil. The relationship that began there is still the centre of everything the Foundation does. Dennis has since spent close to two years in the territory.

The work was first carried by Stichting Sananda Wasi, a Dutch foundation. Over those years, together with the community, it built small dieta centres and temples at Sete Estrelas, Apiuri and Mutum.

The Dieta Center at Mutum, which the people there call the Muká Center. Beside it stand the fornalha and the kitchen where medicine is cooked. It remains the Foundation's centre of gravity.

The work moved from the Dutch foundation into a United States structure. Céu do Novo Mundo was founded in California in 2019 as a 501(c)(3), and carries the work today. Within it the planting became a chapter called Plant a Vine.

2,167 vines and 1,170 chacruna have gone into the ground since 2015, across Mutum, Yawatxiva, Matrixa, Awavana and Sete Estrelas. Not all of them survived. What we learned from that is on its own page, and it is the reason the method looks nothing like it did in 2015.

Five Escolas do Feitio have been held. The knowledge of cooking the medicine was among the things lost in the missionary decades, and what survived was enough to cook for a village, not for festivals of a hundred and fifty people. The Escola brings that knowledge back into the tribe's own hands.

Plant a Vine is renamed the Ayahuasca Restoration Foundation and widened from planting alone to four pillars: vine and leaf restoration, food sovereignty, the Escola do Feitio, and ceremonial and hosting infrastructure.

For 2027, Dennis Notten and Alexandra Ciobanu will be spending a significant time in the territory rather than visiting it. The year starts with an Escola do Feitio and the New Years Festival, and then we'll plant around 1000 vines, 500 chacruna and 200 Acai trees in Mutum in January.