We are all bearers of ancestral wisdom, whether within our DNA or the artistic lineage of musicians, poets, activists and others in the unseen realms whose creations expand our understanding of humanity. Cultural preservation is significant to our collective and individual identities. When we live and create with the awareness of our roots and the stories of our descendants, we begin to strengthen our sense of belonging and meet life with greater intentionality. It’s this mindset that fuels the outlook of interdisciplinary artist AnAkA, whose work is dedicated to the preservation of Afro-indigenous healing modalities.

Shapeshifting between photography, herbal alchemy, sound, visual art, tattooing and movement, she uses each medium as a connective tissue between our ancestral archives and the collective consciousness. And based on her ethnographic research of the African and Caribbean diaspora over the past ten years, she’s developed the living portal AKTIV8 Archive, which intends to initiate a recollection of memory on sacred traditions within communities affected by colonial dominance and erasure. “I’m doing this so we can have our wisdom preserved in one place and to show that we’re all a network of sacred wisdom no matter where you’re from,” she tells me.

AnAkA is inspired by the teachings of the late Burkinabe elder, Malidoma Patrice Somé, and utilises physical spaces to create experiential events that maintain the sanctity of collective gatherings. “The magic of being together can create a lot of understanding and deeper healing,” she says. “Most of Aktiv8 Archive, visually and even sonically, is too sacred for the internet so I have not felt comfortable sharing it online. I would prefer people to come in person.” Most recently she collaboration with NGO The Theatre Offensive for its ‘Radical Futures’ series. She brought about an experience in Weelaunee Forest, Atlanta, in support of the forest defenders and their current battle to preserve the land from industrial oppression.

Born in Portland, Oregon, by a mother who is a painter and a father who is a musician and actor, AnAkA was raised to embrace art as a lifestyle. She was surrounded by majestic meadows and rainforests, which allowed her to experience the indivisibility of art and nature. From her mother’s side of the family, AnAkA is tethered to a long line of medicine women and farmers of Quaker descent while the Black American ancestry of her father’s lineage has been integral in her studies of natural medicine, something she was drawn to following the passing of her grandmother. “Herbalism has become my ancestral responsibility because when my grandmother passed, right before quarantine, I received a lot of information from her. As the first ancestor I met in the Earth realm that transitioned to the spirit realm, she created a stronger bridge for me to all of my other angels that give me the knowledge I need to feel affirmed that they're with me.”

Conversations on infinity, the space-time continuum and the cosmic entanglement of existence were frequent explorations within her family home. “It was a spiritually open space where we could talk about things like spirits and ancestors,” she recalls. “My parents allowed me to be myself and I feel like I’m in a very important part of the lineage where everything is supposed to be remembered in order for us to move forward.”

However, with a history steeped in the segregation of Black and indigenous communities, Oregon’s education system left AnAkA with a slight disconnection to her own identity as a young multiracial person. During her time at the University of Southern California she intended to fill the gaps in her knowledge and majored in Ethnographic Research Studies. She immersed herself in the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Katherine Dunham, which introduced her to the discipline of observing different cultures. College also catalysed the birthing of AKTIV8 Archive which “at this point was its own creative studio,” she says. “I’d been making short films, a photography series as well as now releasing my own music all under the same creative head. The main intention is preserving memory through expression and trusting that film, photography and recording can be a tool to continue the older traditions of oral storytelling.”

Initially, movement was AnAkA’s primary form of communication with photography more of a tool to make money. “I was taking people’s senior portraits and shooting weddings. It was a form of hustle and I wasn't even that great at it.” A photography and film production minor at USC allowed her to refine her skills and she progressed to documenting upcoming artists such as Kehlani, Chloe and Halle, Kali Uchis and Pink Siifu. “Me being really enthralled by everybody’s process is what started Aktiv8 Archive. Music is such a direct channel to God, being able to bring sound out of the universe and translating it is such a force of nature.” Since then, she’s shot for Vogue, Afropunk, Vanity Fair, Nike, Beats By Dre and Levi’s and mastered commercial, documentary, narrative and music video direction.

A formative moment came when she travelled to Togo in 2019, which reignited her love for the djembe. During lockdown, she felt called to return to sound as her main creative medium. “Sound is the source of creation. Everybody says we started with the big bang and that’s a sound baby!” she exclaims. Soon she gifted herself with a loop pedal and began experimenting with her voice as an instrument in order to channel what she calls ‘Angel Music’, which is also the title of her debut EP, released in November 2022. It’s a collection of melodic prayers in gratitude for her ancestors but there’s strokes of yearning for “all of the languages I wish I knew and all the lands I wish I remembered,” she reflects.

It aims to recognise the guides and protectors whom we do not see but are ever present in our walks through life. “I love performing for the spirits and I call in very specific angels who know what messages are going to help heal the collective,” she says. “I’m reading ‘The Resonance Effect’ by Carloine McMakin at the moment, which is about how frequency-specific microcurrent medicine is changing how people think about healing themselves. I’m using Angel Music as a tool of medicine essentially, and I would love to continue performing it in places where the frequency just needs that clarity.”

Many realms influence Angel Music. She’s immersed herself in the works of other sound channelers such as Prophet Vaughn Benjamin of Akae Beka and Midnite, as well the ethereal sounds of Loreena Mckennit and Enya. “My mother is of Celtic descent so we’re very folky fairy people,” she explains. Add to that the practice of chanting and her love for the Orisa praise songs of the Yoruba Ifa and Lukumi tradition. Collaboration is also key. AnAkA’s work has come to be through her commitment to encouraging other creatives to preserve their own artistic wisdom. In February she returned with a remix EP that featured cosmic adaptations of her songs from Viko Marley, Brown Calvin, hrlum, elijah jamal asani, Semiratruth, Guelo, 2nd Natur(e), Buli and LVDF.

In March AnAkA released the book ‘Aktiv8 Archive: A Sacred Wisdom Movement’ which is a compilation of photographs celebrating the different movements of the African and indigenous diaspora. Ranging from the holistic practices taught by elders in various traditions to the liberation movements such as ‘The Fees Must Fall’ in South Africa and women who survived the Mau Mau revolution in Kenya, it’s a multi-generational book that was pieced together in honour of the lands she has traversed, including Togo, Madagascar, Saint Lucia, Mexico, Benin and USA. While exploring her own storytelling practices through storyboards and collages, AnAkA intends to inspire our return to holistic practices that are reflective of the communities whose lives are synced with the cycles of nature and the cosmos.

AnAkA continues giving back to the land through the activation of her communal projects, armed with percussion and voice. “They go well together,” she says as our conversation comes to an easeful end. “That’s why they’re also tools of sound frequency healing because that’s what Shamans of all different lineages have used and still use. The more I learn about it from my elders and by myself, the more I’ll be able to expand on it.”