Winter Jendayi

Born and raised in Northern California, Winter is a ceremonialist, musician and mentor whose path and work is rooted in ancestral healing arts. For over a decade she has been a devoted student within Indigenous traditions, as well as, relearning and reconnecting with her own ancestral ways of Turtle Island, West Africa and Europe.

Winter’s journey began in 2013 when she was living off grid and in complete communion with the earth. At that time, her healing and ceremonial path opened as she began to sit in the Native American Church, and since, her life has transformed in powerful ways.

Following the call of ancestral healing traditions, Winter has spent the last 13 years immersing in cultural teachings, studying sacred cosmovisions, reclaiming her own ancestral identity and deepening within the artistry of all she holds.

Throughout the past decade, she has traveled extensively and worked as an organizer/facilitator for her communities and teachers, weaving worlds for cultural exchange and prayer pathways. Her journey has carried her from the mystical hills of India to the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil and beyond. Her studies span across oceans, lands and countless territories.

As a woman of Afro-Indigenous and European ancestry, Winter believes in reindigenization as a path to liberation through honoring our intrinsic connection with the Earth and remembering our Original Ways. This is the prayer that holds all she offers.

A Deeper Dive…

Learn more about Winter’s paths of study + work

Winter is a 9-year Moon Dancer of the Meztztliyolilitzli Danza in Costa Rica where she has been dancing since 2014, under the guidance of her teacher and grandmother, Nanatzin Itzpapalotl.
In 2019, as Winter completed her first round of commitment to this work, she received the Nahuatl name, ‘Koskatlan’ which means, ‘the woman who weaves her life.’

From 2020-2024 Winter held the role of Sahumadora within her dance — a responsibility of working with the fire + sacred smoke, and in 2020 she was also passed the blessing to pour temazcal (sweat lodge) and hold this space for her community.

As of 2026, Winter continues her Danza commitment, this time with the Tambor (drum), diving into the teachings of the songs and the heartbeat of the Dance.
In 2022 Winter became a co-organizer of Nawabu Culture — a fiscally sponsored LLC social impact organization with a mission to bring about transformative social change through Indigeneity, arts and culture, community, and spirituality.
Within Nawabu, Winter works with Indigenous leaders from the Amazon (Huni Kuin, Noke Koî, Yawanawa Shipibo), supporting them in cultural preservation, creating economic opportunities, and amplifying their environmental stewardship through a variety of projects.
Nawabu’s work is also aimed at creating sacred spaces for healing and solidarity across communities for individual and collective liberation.
Winter is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and much of her relationship with music has been in direct correlation with the spiritual and cultural path she walks. She released her debut album, Hilos Sagrados, in 2022 and is currently in the midst of her next recording project, due for release late 2026/early 2027.
Learn more about Winter’s musical path here.
In 2015 Winter traveled to Southern India where she participated in an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training at Kranti Yoga School. Soon after, she continued her studies in California, followed by an advanced teaching program in Guatemala.
Winter currently holds three different yoga certifications with a total of 700 hours of study, and title of E-RYT 700. She has been guiding yoga classes and integrating Ayurvedic elemental-based teachings into her work for the last decade.
After a lifelong calling towards birthwork, Winter took a Doula Training with Master Doula Haize Hawke in 2020, and in 2024, participated in an Indigenous Childbirth Education Training with Montse Olmos, Paulina Jimenez, Briseida Arco & Tecpaxochitl Gonzalez.
Winter has been offering support as a doula since 2021, with a focus on traditional and decolonized practices.

Learn more here.