Meet Sharon Oxendine: Finding the Way Home

For Sharon Oxendine, healing begins with relationship: relationship to self, to ancestry, to community, and to the natural world. Guided by Indigenous wisdom, ancestral practice, and a lifelong commitment to healing, her work invites people to return to what is most essential: respect, dignity, and connection.

As part of Kripalu’s Amplify Voices of the Global Majority series, Sharon brings a perspective rooted in lived experience, medicine work, and deep reverence for the Earth and all our relations. We asked her about lineage, belonging, and what it means to find your way home.

1. Can you share a bit about your work and what guides it?

My work is guided by my Indigenous experience, my ongoing ancestral work, and my firm belief that nature-based restorative practices have the power to heal.

2. What guides, traditions, or lineages most shape the way you approach this work?

I am deeply shaped by my Lumbee Indian lineage, specifically my grandparents, whom I watched work and toil for years without complaint. Their medicine work within our home and community remains a cornerstone of my approach. Additionally, my work is informed by a decade of study with Malidoma Somé and my collaboration with Cherokee author and medicine woman Mary Lou Awiakta.

3. What feels most important for people to understand about this work right now?

It is essential to approach this work with respect and dignity. We must all strive to be in "right relationship" with Mother Earth and all our relatives. By doing so, we can begin to rebuild love and support within our communities.

4. What do you hope people carry with them after spending time with you in Amplify?

As a Native woman who has spent my life working on myself—embracing my Two-Spirit identity, maintaining 35 years of sobriety, and following my own truth—I am not here to define appropriation for others. Instead, I hope to inspire you to find your own way home through a life that respects all our relations.