Amara Ullauri
(they/them/elle)
“I don’t think there’s a coincidence that amaranth in The Andes is not researched as much when it is also a crop that symbolizes Indigenous resistance against not only, colonization, but against GMOs, and against monocultures and industrialized agriculture that is causing deforestation. There’s a lot of stories there that we need to remember and we need to preserve and we need to share. And I think that that’s another key element of transforming our educational system or the work that we do in this curriculum building, that it’s also that process of remembering. “ - Amara
Amara is a queer, immigrant, non-binary farmer and educator. They immigrated to New York at the age of five, bringing with them the seed stories of their family who have been cultivating cacao and citrus in the Ecuadorian coast. Amara farms with the intention to heal the wounds of exploitation on this earth, knowing that this work is also generational healing for their family/community. They have nourished their deep agrarian roots in the rich community-built soil of Brooklyn farms and recently transitioned to working at Rock Steady Farm as a vegetable farmer and Education Programs Coordinator.
As an educator, Amara facilitates earth-based lessons that celebrate ancestral foodways, Black and Indigenous agricultural technologies and community resilience. They have led bilingual (Spanish/English) workshops and training on herbal medicine making, food preservation, garden design, propagation methods and seed keeping across virtual realms and in urban farms and gardens.
Amara immersed themselves in the urban farming world in 2015, as an eager Community Apprentice at the Bushwick Campus Farm. They simultaneously weaved relationships with Grove Street Community Farm, the Farm School community and KCC Urban Farm. Amara enjoys creating collaborative learning spaces, and has partnered with Kichwa Hatari to run Runa Pacha, an urban agriculture program focused on andean philosophies, kichwa language and andean farming practices. Amara has also been a trainer for BIPOC FIRE en Español at Soul Fire Farm.
Amara received a BA in Anthropology of Environmental Politics from the CUNY Baccalaureate School for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies. Though navigating several positions, Amara strives to have three things in common: unconditional love for the land, compassion for all living things, and deep reverence for their ancestors.
When not farming or teaching, Amara is learning how to embroider, mastering one-pot meals, plotting the demise of this white supremacist cis-heteropatriarchal capitalist society, and cuddling with their cat named Keedy.
