Caroline Acuna is a musician, sound practitioner, curandera (healer), dancer, and ritualist with twenty years of experience in fundraising, membership coordination, teaching, and mentoring in organizations engaged in social transformation.  Fundamental to all of her endeavors is her spiritual practice that is rooted in her council of ancestors (Maré).  Based on earth practice, her spirituality is a combination of Lakota and Maré and Buddhism.   She says, “Like Buddha I have sat amongst many trees, many oceans to seek enlightenment.” 

              Always keenly aware of sound and music, Caroline uses sound in her daily practice employing vocals, prayer bowls, drums, and “anything that can carry prayer and hold prayer for me and those I pray for and with.”  Born into a family of musicians and dancers, she was mentored--virtually from infancy--by her grandmother and mother in the songs, dances, and stories of the rich Chicana / Mexican heritage of the family.  Throughout her life, Caroline has continued to learn and integrate into her sound/music practice the indigenous rhythms and songs of many cultures, especially African, Afro- Cuban, Afro- Mexican , Native American and Hip Hop.

              Caroline describes herself as “an organic intellectual” whose education has primarily come from travel, participating as an employee and community member in the social justice world, reading, asking questions, and most importantly, listening.  “I jump at the chance when people like bell hooks come to town. I go to listen.”  A graduate of the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, Caroline was on the staff of Peace Action West (formerly California Peace Action) for 9 years. While there, she was schooled in issues of U.S. militarism, foreign policy, nuclear disarmament, as well as continuing to acquire knowledge in the areas of human rights--race, class, gender, queer rights, and environmental concerns.  Perhaps one could say, Caroline has a doctorate from an ethereal “University of Elders, Women, and Children”, all of whom have been her true teachers. 

              Caroline is a board member of The Women of Color Resource Center and has sat on other boards and committees of social justice organizations.  She has facilitated many workshops on undoing racism and has mentored youth in the social justice movement and elsewhere.  “I feel responsible to continue to teach, mentor, and work for human rights on a daily basis.”  

What is really important to me is the current human condition.  It’s “us” that is important to me--us as humans, mammals, spirit and our future generations, future incarnations.  Maré once told me:  “Our children will be safe once we (adults) learn to live and love as children do."