Yemoonyah's photostream  

My name is Yamile Yemoonyah and I am a spirit-artist and creative entrepreneur.


I was born in Manizales to my birth-mother of the Embera, an indigenous people in Colombia and to my unknown African-Colombian birth-father. When I was one and a half years old I was adopted, together with my brother-to-be by my parents who are both from the Netherlands and who raised us in Germany. I currently live and work in Berlin.

The jaibana (shaman) of the Embera people has the power to turn away from this world and to behold the true universe through his visions and dreams. This faculty and process is regarded as labour. The shaman uses the term kabai to express this work of communicating with the supernatural world. Besides its sense of 'to work' (including physical and manual labour), kabai also means 'to learn' and 'to know'. By means of her work with the spiritual world, the jaibana acquires her knowledge and insights of man's true existence and is therefore able to heal the earth, which is her main task ! The spirit of a jaibana, who teaches him how to do his kabai - work, is an Antomia, mother or master of water, amphibious beings that live in the waterworlds beneath our own world.

The Dogon people of Mali also talk about amphibious beings who look half human and half fish or snake. They know the Sirius Star System to be the original home to these helpers and teachers of mankind.

My creations reflect all of these cultural influences and speak of their underlying ancient knowledge that is spiritual in essence and connects all beings no matter where they are from. But they also celebrate that Spirit can be expressed in a myriad of forms which to me shows that creativity is an inherent feature of life and we should enjoy the beauty of all creations, be it a painting, a human being or a star.