An interview with Maria Manno and the importance of reconnecting with Mother Eart via self-production
From Italy to Australia to find her purpose – self-production and the deep connection with Mother Earth – Maria has spent 5 years living in Darwin where she can express her better self. Maria shares her truth and the importance of appreciating the gift Nature give to us every day.
Imagine a vast tropical forest, a woman and her knowledge. Now imagine this woman being able to heal herself by the power of the Flora she has around. This is not a miracle, this is just another wonderful woman who decided to run away from the big city life, the stress it brings and the unhealthy environment, simply to reconnect with our beloved Mother Earth, Pachamama, Terra Mater and find her purpose through self-production.
The story of Maria is simple yet fascinating, another travel woman who has crossed my path during my life in Darwin, Far North of Australia. Someone that I was meant to meet in my life, to enlighten my knowledge and to depend on my connection with Nature.
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Yes, that’s right, I’m an Italian living around the world. If you want to know more about me, come and check this out. Here you can read about me, my story, my path and my interest in living a more eco-friendly lifestyle and sharing travel and food tips with you.
So if you want to understand the importance of slowing down your life and connect with what mother nature has to offer you don’t want to miss this interview with Maria. A young woman who’s self-producing through medicinal and shamanic plants.
Who is Maria Manno?
Born in 1993 in Rome, Maria is the fifth and last kid in her family, “the 5th element of Nature: the ether” as she likes to say. Her southern Catholic family always gave her a connection with religion, which she transformed – later in her life – as the spiritual research of something deep to connect truly herself with Mother Earth and all the many facets of it.
Maria studied Anthropology at the university, her love and care for cultures got bigger and all the knowledge she could learn through books, teachers and school desks was just the beginning of her journey in this world.
Leaving Italy to expand her experiences. First stop Oregon
After a few years at the university, she decided to leave her studies and start “to meet the living cultures and to live anthropology as a lifestyle; in a curious and open approach to the different way life is lived around the globe”.
In 2017, pushed by her strong curiosity about the world and the need for a break from the chaotic city of Rome, Maria went on a three-month holiday in Oregon state in USA.
Between the Beloved Festival – a festival with a series of devotional offerings to heal the land and each other through shared experiences – and the daily life of this holiday she meets people from all over the world everyone with a different cultural background and distinct experience. Here she started to understand how resourceful and important is to travel: “The opportunities and the resources this journey creates is a personal growth you can only experience if you travel yourself and live it with the body, soul and spirit!”
Spurred by the desire to know and learn new cultures and: “you look like someone that has to go to Australia” – a fun quote from one of her friends – pushed her to her next step. The land Down Under.
Searching for a Shaman and finding it through her relationship in Australia
“Abandon yourself to what comes, to take the step that the universe is helping you to achieve.” In 2019 Maria entered Australia, not aware of what this beautiful land deserved for her.
Here is where Maria deepened her connections with Mother Earth, her interest in the Aboriginal Culture, her desire to be self-sufficient by learning more about self-production; and last but not least, Maria found love.
In need of a Shaman through her travel journey, Maria meets her partner. The vision of healing with the help of a Shaman mutates as they – as a couple – find in their relationship the actual journey to healing and knowing themselves better within themselves. Maria and her husband now share something deeper than a relationship and this connection is only one of the reasons that keeps her in Australia.
Self-production as a deepened connection with Mother Earth
Maria has always been curious about the benefits we can get from connecting to Nature. Her siblings were a big push for her, as they “conveyed good concepts and important values”.In Rome, she volunteered in a Fairtrade shop she got closer to artisans of any kind, understanding the importance of cooperating and developing through this kind of project. Friends who had better knowledge than her at that time taught her some important things about “agriculture and the help we can get from the land and the infinite sources”.
As most of the people that leave the big cities to experience life in a smaller reality, like a smaller city or a town, since Maria moved to Darwin – almost 5 years ago – felt the connection with Mother Earth was getting even deeper than it was back in Rome.
The understanding, studying, living and experiences she had in Australia and in Italy, linked Maria in a way she was ready to work together with the many benefits Nature is offering. Disapprovving and refusing the scheme we are given by society and in need of her own personal freedom Maria begins her journey with self-production.
“I got closer to self-production as I am in need of personal freedom and I disapprove of this system that is more focused on doing larger productions, losing the quality of the products, unable to offer locals and seasonal flavours, putting aside the importance of a culture and a tradition, disconnecting us to the real source.”
“I want to be able to have the freedom to choose the product I use, I want to understand what my body needs, why and when. All of this by creating a direct and close bond to Mother Earth and all the things this world has to offer. Everything I create and use gives me a strong life energy, it motivates me, makes me free and able to create, thanks to the energy coming from the Earth.”
Maria’s goal on this journey with self-production
“Through self-production, I want to establish a true relation and pure connection with Mother Earth; sharing this with others.” The abundance and knowledge of these medicinal plants that have lived with us since very ancient times is a big slice of Maria’s goal through this journey.
As she started with self-production, firstly she realized how good was for her. Discovering the good effects a plant has and how to use it in the best and most effective way.
“Working with chamomille plants gave me a sense of tranquillity, calm, physical and mental well-being; the use and the handling of this gentle plant made me feel like I needed to share these benefits. Starting testing the products with my partner and seeing them benefit him too, I decided to expand my knowledge, passion and final products with others; so I could make other people understand how important is to connect again with Nature. Also thought self-production.”
Maria’s goal with self-production is to expand from personal use to larger-scale use for people in need. To share her knowledge and personal experience with a particular plant and the desire to keep learning from Mother Earth; to be the teacher one day and not only the student.
“In a few months from now, I would like to be able to use only the plants, seeds, flowers and others I am growing, to do my products 100% from my own garden. Is a completely different climate from where I come from, so the plants I can grow in the Northern Territory are definitely different in this tropical climate. More studying and experimenting is in my mind but this won’t stop the bigger vision I see for my self-production for Terra Mater.”
Where can we find Maria and her eco-friendly products?
As today Maria produces a small number of products but the quality of those is what is really important. Her self-production process is slow and attentive to the details and care that a certain final product needs. She produces tincture, slave, balms, bath salt, massage and body oils.
Terra Mater Homemade is the name of her small brand (meaning Mother Earth in Latin).
You can find it on her Facebook page by following this link where you can get in direct contact with her.
If you happen to be in Darwin you can find Maria’s products at De la Plage, a lovely and relaxing cafe along Casuarina Coastal Reserve, they offer to Maria a little space to sell some of her favourite products. Every Sunday in Nightcliff Market Terra Mater products are hosted in a woman’s stall.
Also, Maria has bigger plans for her projects, a “Terra Mater Homemade” website is in the process to give people in Australia the chance to buy her genuine products simply from her shop. So if you would like to try balms, oils, or tinctures from Terra Mater stay updated here or on her Facebook page. She will be delighted to share her knowledge, and her passion; but mainly the final products she has been working together with Mother Earth to heal us and connect us again with our planet.
