Honouring the roots, nurturing the future
Inspired by the global movement 1% for the Planet, we’ve woven our own thread of reciprocity into the fabric of KINTU. Rather than accumulating for the sake of growth, we believe in circulating energy - giving back to the roots that nourish us all. That’s why we are committed to contributing a portion of our sales to Indigenous-led initiatives that preserve, protect, and carry forward ancestral wisdom. At KINTU, we walk with the Andean principle of ayni - sacred reciprocity - a living agreement of mutual care that nurtures balance between people, communities, and Pachamama herself.
In 2024, we were honoured to support a family in El Encuentro, Quillabamba (Peru) who cultivate coca leaves using traditional methods passed down through generations. The k’intu — the sacred three-leaf coca offering — carries profound cultural and spiritual meaning across the Andes. It is a gesture of prayer, gratitude, and connection to the Apus, to Pachamama, and to one another. As our name KINTU was born from this sacred offering, it felt only right that our first act of giving would return to the very source of that inspiration.
This family grows coca organically and in reverence, honouring ancestral agricultural rhythms rather than commercial systems that have distanced the plant from its sacred context. After harvest, they continue the ceremonial practice of Kuka Saruy — gently stepping on the leaves with bare feet. More than a drying process, this act is a prayer in motion: a way of blessing the leaves, thanking the spirit of the plant, and sealing the harvest with intention and song.
Guided by a 79-year-old elder, who carries decades of lived knowledge, the family not only preserves these practices but also shares them with those who feel called to learn. In a time when many traditional ways are being forgotten or replaced, this work becomes an act of cultural protection — a quiet resistance rooted in continuity.
Supporting this initiative meant supporting more than a crop. It meant supporting living memory, intergenerational transmission, and the safeguarding of a plant that has long been misunderstood outside of its sacred and cultural context.
Through this first offering, we chose to give back to the roots — to the plant, the people, and the lineage that inspired our name and our path.
In 2025, our Giving Back initiative was directed to Fundación Cuidemos Paraísos in Chile — supporting a project dedicated to protecting 40,000 m² of native forest in Palguín Alto, southern Chile, within ancestral Mapuche territory — Wallmapu.
This native forest is home to the puma, the delicate monito del monte, the powerful carpintero negro, and many other endemic species who depend on this ecosystem to survive. But beyond biodiversity, this land is also a guardian of water.
The project seeks to protect an ecosystem that sustains approximately 500 litres of water per second — which equals nearly 15.7 billion litres per year. To put that into perspective, that is the equivalent of more than 6,300 Olympic-sized swimming pools of fresh water flowing each year!
Without forest, there is no water... and without water, there is no life.
The forest takes care of us — now it is our turn to care for it.
These lands are currently under threat from extractivist projects. By supporting this initiative, we stand for the protection of native forest, living water, biodiversity, and Indigenous territory. As guardians of the Earth, we recognise that protecting her ecosystems is not optional — it is a responsibility.
With every purchase, a part returns to the source — to the lands, waters, and communities that sustain life.
If you feel called to go further — to collaborate, contribute, or directly support this protection work — we invite you to reach out. Reciprocity grows when we participate in it together.
Each year, we will select a new initiative to support - always Indigenous-led, and always rooted in care for land, culture, and community. With every purchase, a part of what is received returns to the source - a quiet offering, in honour of the many hands, hearts, and lineages that make KINTU possible.
Thank you for walking this path with us - in beauty, in reverence, and in reciprocity.