More about me, who I am, what I do, what I believe

Leonora Willis, Daughter of Samoa

Hello and welcome to my site. 
Talofa ma afio mai!

Currently Leonora Willis resides and works on land stolen from the Lisjan people in the Huichin territory (East Bay of San Francisco Area), operating her birthwork business in Oakland, Ca. As an Indigenous woman, she supports the work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. You too can aid in the rematriation of the land by donating to the Shuumi land tax.

Professionally and by vocation, Leonora supports herself and her family as a birthworker, certified lactation education specialist, bodyworker and teacher, in yoga or childbirth preparation, parenting and overall humaning - work centered in respect, dignity, integrity and compassion.  Leonora has 15 years of Yoga teaching experience and training. She continues to study Yoga philosophy, history and its practices as a path to self realization and actualization, enlightenment and ultimately, liberation. You can see the Yoga page to sign up for yoga classes and workshops and practice with Leonora. As a birthworker, Leonora was originally trained by Roots of Labor Birth Collective in traditional and indigenous birth support care for families. She has directly helped over 100 families bring forth their babies into the world, humbled by each experience, each interaction, respecting the trust and confidence families imparted in her in their time together.  You can sign up for a childbirth preparation class, course or workshop to learn from me or my co-collaborators or schedule a free 30 minute consultation if you wish to find out more about my individual client birthwork offerings. I continue to learn about and practice traditional healing modalities to aid Black and Indigenous People of Color in all the work that I do while honoring, recognizing and caring for the planet, who is Mother to us all.

As a birth and postpartum doula, I work to help each client envision and experience the kind of birth they deserve, helping to educate and inform, to prepare and support them throughout their pregnancy journey into that unparalleled and incomparable life as a parent. This work occurs within the confines of a post-colonial world, within the limitations of an empire that has built an infrastructure with institutions that put profit before people, support capitalism, colonialism and patriarchal structures that mean to wipe out our humanity and destroy our world. It is with great humility, passion and love that I approach all I do in my work.  

In the past, Leonora has been a college English teacher both in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area. I am also mentor, teacher, co-conspirator and co-collaborator to other birthwork professionals working in this care industry, whether that be in teaching yoga or in providing support for families through birthwork in all its many forms. We collectively use this platform in the aid of liberation through knowledge and education, yoga, and birthwork.

My business name, Daughter of Samoa, comes from the title of a book written and published by a remarkable ancestor of mine, Lauli'i Willis. The Story of Lauli'i a Daughter of Samoa was published in 1889 in San Francisco, California by herself, Lauli'i Willis. In the opening, she writes "I have been requested to give to the world a sketch of my life, including a description of my tropical native land, together with the domestic customs, habits, amusements and legends of the far-away country of Samoa. In doing so I have a two-fold object: One is to make other lands better acquainted with my people, and the other is, by means of the sale of this book (the profits of which are to be religiously devoted to said purpose), to practically aid in redeeming, as far as possible, the lands of which my people have been deprived, and, if possible, to restore to them the soil upon which they were born, and which, by hereditary descent and long occupancy, is theirs by right."

I'm blessed to be in the lineage of this woman, this ancestor who shared who she was and what she did in life with others for the righteousness and worthy mission of rematriating her native land, the Samoan islands with Samoans. She's also industrious, innovative, witty, charming and overall, a force to be reckoned with -- all traits I aspire to. I give homage to an ancestor with whom I identify and to whom I dedicate my labors. May it be in alignment with the highest good of all people and their evolution so that humanity can be more of what we're meant to be.
#landback #indigenouspeopleonindigenousland #daughterofsamoa #freedomforindigenouspeopleeverywhere