Chee’ Jay - Casa Ceiba - Lifetree Haven

An offering of Ceiba Futures.
Rooted in ritual. Guided by vision. Created in kinship.

Welcome to Chee’ Jay - Casa Ceiba - Lifetree Haven!

Chee’ Jay - Casa Ceiba - Lifetree Haven is an immersive cultural experience for Indigenous, Black, and other diasporic artists, creatives, and organizers from the Global North seeking reciprocal relationships with Maya cultural practitioners in Santiago Atitlán. This initiative supports the cultivation of transnational solidarity through weaving constellations (commonly referred to as, cultural strategy) and creative exchange.

Though often seen as a contemporary innovation, Indigenous communities have long practiced the art of worldview-shifting–embodying memory, adaptation, and futurity as pathways for collective survival and transformation. Rooted in Maya cosmology and the Oaxacan Indigenous framework of Comunalidad, Chee’ Jay - Casa Ceiba - Lifetree Haven fosters translocal kinship, cultural revitalization, and intergenerational creative connection.

Our name honors the Tz’utujil language, where Chee’ Jay means “tree house”–a space of rest, vision, and rootedness. Santiago Atitlán’s original name, Tz’ikin Jay, means “bird house,” evoking flight, perspective, and spirit. By invoking the ceiba tree in the Spanish-language and the tree of life in the English-language iterations of the name, we build a cosmological bridge between rooted place and diasporic return.

Our vision is to host cultural 1-3 week experiences that:

  • Hosts Indigenous, Black, and other diasporic artists, creatives, and organizers from the Global North–particularly queer, trans, and women creatives of Central American/Mesoamerican descent–who are seeking to reconnect with their ancestral roots and build meaningful, reciprocal relationships with communities in Guatemala

  • Offer immersive cultural exchange with local practitioners in weaving, land back projects, herbalists, storytellers, and/or artists

  • Creative studio space and lodging

  • Provides space for rest, dreaming, and ceremonial practice

  • Opportunities for reciprocal exchange and local community engagement

We are currently in the early stages of developing Chee’ Jay - Casa Ceiba - Lifetree Haven. This includes:

  • Building partnerships with local organizations

  • Designing immersive residencies pilot for 2026

  • Securing fiscal sponsorship and funding support

  • Preparing the Casa Ceiba site for visiting artists and collaborators

Your support—through energy, ideas, resources, or presence—is part of this collective dreaming.

Interested in staying connected or supporting this project?