Nomad Medicine
Photography: Renee Athay
Nomad Medicine began as a small ember fed by the flame of a larger passion.
Renee Athay, a Heber City resident when she’s in the States, has become what she calls a “social entrepreneur.” Her lifelong interest in travel and the creative arts has evolved into her life’s work: helping women artisans create core business values so that they can market their craft and support themselves.
From working with silversmiths in a leper colony in Ethiopia to a recycled glass bead maker in Ghana and now a new project in Bolivia, Athay has literally traveled around the world to foster sustainable communities and businesses in an “outsourcing kind of way,” she says.
“I’m drawn to very remote, indigenous cultures … anything tribal, primitive, bohemian,” Athay says. Her interest in culture and ceremony eventually sparked another business plan. Nomad Medicine incorporates Athay’s business acumen and travel experience to create what Athay calls an “opportunity for authentic expression.” To be more specific, Nomad Medicine helps people plan and coordinate “significant transitions,” including anything from weddings to funerals and any other life transition that people want to celebrate.
“Nomad Medicine provides an opportunity for people who value spirituality but don’t have a specific context, and helps them craft their own experience so it is meaningful to them. The emphasis is on eclectic and authentic expression,” says Athay. She says she invites clients into the creative process to shape their own unique experiences. Her role, she says, is to “facilitate creativity and expression” and incorporate, as desired, world traditions into the mix.
In fact, Athay doesn’t have any pre-established ceremonies to speak of, relying on invention and expression to give context and meaning to each individual event. She does so by using the “tools of the world.” Because of her travels, she has accumulated “a kind of wealth,” she says, having collected various objects and symbols and the traditions associated with them, which she allows clients to use in ceremonies.
Beyond that, the possibilities of Nomad Medicine, and for that matter, Athay herself, are unlimited. The only constant is Athay’s passion for “authentic expression and the creative process of expression.” That, and bringing people and cultures closer together.
“I try to build a bridge. It makes me happy to kind of cross-pollinate the world. It is an honor to be an ambassador of that,” says Athay.
For more information on Nomad Medicine, or to book an event, call 435.671.8076 or log onto www. nomadmedicine.com.
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