Native Waves: Cherry Ocampo’s Vision for Wellness through Indigenous Wisdom

by Colleen Leonardi

Where land meets the sea is where Cherry Ocampo wants to be. A North Carolina native, Ocampo has unearthed the benefits of mixing rare regional clays and halophyte plants together for enhanced beauty and well-being. Founded nearly a year ago by Ocampo here in Wilmington, Native Waves Carolina Blue Clay offers locally sourced seaweedinfused clays, salt waters, yaupon tea, and more. From face masks to topical treatments for inflammation, Ocampo uses her products daily. And once you meet her at

Origins

Born into a family of herbalists with a mother whose lineage dates back to Bogotá, Colombia and a line of the Ch’orti’ Mayan and Miskito Indians, Ocampo is on a mission to share Native American medicinal traditions from her past for future generations. Her knowledge of plant life and indigenous medicine runs deep.

“When I was a kid, we used to cover each other in clay and pretend to operate on each other. I learned about native wild plants, too, growing up but it was not celebrated, so I would keep the knowledge to myself and hide my books,” she says, as we talk about her life growing up in Chapel Hill.

As an adult, when faced with a health crisis that allopathic medicine could not cure, she sought advice from a Native American healer. He guided her back to her intuitive center and onto her life’s path.

Then she had the dream.

A Vision

“I was gathering clay like when I was a kid and I was putting it on my body,” Ocampo says. “And then I was in the Yucatan peninsula and I was walking along in the forest.” When she woke from the dream she asked: “What am I supposed to learn from this? Is there medicine in blue clay?”

Ocampo started researching Native American blue clays online. She searched for sources of it in southeast North Carolina and discovered veins of Georgia blue clay here in Wilmington. Then she saw the science on blue clay for gastrointestinal and skin disorders, “…for what I needed,” she says. “And then I found the Mayan connection with it. And then it clicked. I thought, “Is this some weird way of ancestral messaging? Spiritually, I thought this is my answer. It’s going to sound crazy to people but I’m going to try it out.”

Earth and Sea

Ocampo aims to provide a line of products for her clients that honor the past as well as the present. A self-taught forager and herbalist, she honors traditional, indigenous medicine by seeking the expertise of Native American communities. With Native Waves, Ocampo combines earth and water—soil and sea—to bring two feminine aspects together. Ask her about the cultural history behind the use of clays and aquatic plants for healing, and you’re in for a fascinating look back on ancient Mayan approaches to medicine and contemporary approaches to algotherapy, the therapeutic uses of seaweed.

Yet you don’t have to be a traditionalist to benefit from what Ocampo offers. And this spring, you may even see her foraging on the shores of Wrightsville Beach for seaweed. As the ocean warms, aquatic plants like sea lettuce, red dulse, sargassum, grasselaria, and padina (also know as peacock’s tail) start to proliferate. Ocampo searches along the coastlines for these and other seaweeds. She has worked with Wilson Freshwater, research specialist at the Center for Marine Science, and even sought advice from the Asian markets in town, as their experiences growing up in oceanic towns makes for a few self-taught experts, too.

For all of her foraging for freshwater plants, Ocampo travels inland “past Leland” as she doesn’t trust the water here in Wilmington due to its toxicity. She also gathers fresh rainwater and saltwater in alignment with the cycles of the moon, using the waters in her products to enhance the energetic aspects of her blends.

In the future, Ocampo hopes to inspire chefs in the region to use more locally sourced seaweeds on their menus. She also hopes to offer workshops about foraging for local plant life along the coast. (See "A Sea of Potential, below.)

“It’s been a journey,” Ocampo says. Luckily, we’re the recipients of her gifts.

[Note: Ocampo offered her products at the market until the pandemic, and for now sells online.]

photo by Colleen Leonardi: Cherry Ocampo harvests seaweed for incorporation in some of her products. The benefits sheet for her Sargassum is shown here with an assortment of the pink wampum (quahog clam) shells she also finds locally.

photo by Colleen Leonardi: As the ocean warms each spring, aquatic plants such as red dulse start to proliferate. Ocampo finds these and other seaweeds along the coast.

A Sea of Potential

“There are 135 species of seaweeds along the Carolina coast and a lot of them are edible and no one around here is using them in restaurants,” says Ocampo, founder and owner of Native Waves Carolina Blue Clay. Bringing science, heritage, and culture together, Ocampo hopes to educate people on the benefits of seaweeds and other native plants. Future workshops will include topics such as: Native American herbalism in the area of Wilmington and the cultural aspects; algotherapy, the therapeutic uses of seaweed; and foraging as a culinary and medicinal practice. To learn more about Ocampo, her products, and future classes, visit Native Waves on Facebook at facebook.com/nativewavescarolinablueclay or Instagram at instagram.com/nativewavescarolinablueclay or call (910) 998-7776.

Colleen Leonardi is a freelance writer, editor, and MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at UNCW. Learn more at colleenleonardi.com.

top photo courtesy of Native Waves Cherry: Ocampo walks to find wild native plants in the field, such as this native yucca, which she uses to make soap. the Tidal Creek farmers market, it’s evident she has a healing touch.*