Cambodian & Chinese Elders Exchange with CERI
May 22, 2026
Cambodian and Chinese elders shared food, dance, song, and the histories of their communities.
Public Works Alliance brought together staff and young people from organizations across California working with system-impacted youth. Sacred Roots held the opening and closing ceremonies at Community United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) in Oakland.
On day one, we worked with water, earth, and air. Participants released what they were carrying through a water ritual, offered tobacco to the drums, and joined a drumming meditation to reclaim tobacco as sacred medicine, after it was taken from ceremony and grown through enslaved labor. We closed by building a community altar together in small groups of youth and adults.
On day two, we turned to fire and ether. Through the Toltec teaching of the four fires, participants brought strength, love, wisdom, and purpose into the body. Drawing from Andean cosmovision, we worked with mugwort and moxa, and closed around a fire cauldron, offering to the flames what each person was ready to transform.
Held by Yu-Shuan, Lidia Ruelo-Salazar, Renata Metta Moreira, and Brenda Salgado.
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