Bios

Ina Anahata

Ina goes by many names.  Ina is a Native American word for Divine Mother; Anahata is the Sanskrit word for Heart Chakra.  In Africa, she’s known as Pochilo, light from the moon.   Ina is a trained diviner who has studied both in Africa and the United States to learn the traditional arts of cowrie shell, stick and voice divination.  She has had the privilege of working with shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and Ecuador.  In the U.S., she has worked with Native American elders and medicine keepers.

For over 13 years, Ina has conducted a hands-on healing practice.  She specializes in her own form of transformational bodywork.

Both a mother and grandmother, Ina has lived a simple, back-to-nature life in the remote areas of Vermont, New York and Maine.  She lived by grinding her own grain, growing her own vegetables, guiding hunters through the backwoods and raising poultry.  These experiences prepared her for life in the bush in Africa.

Ina is also a published songwriter. Fifteen of her songs are published in the Women with Wings songbook.  Her song “Gratitude” is used throughout the world as a prayer and is inscribed on a plaque at the entrance to the Edith Ball Memorial Aquatic Center in Tucson, Arizona, a center dedicated to helping people with disabilities through aquatic activity.

She is also a founding member of The Temple of the Feminine Divine, a spiritual center established by Kay Gardner.  Through this center, Ina is nationally licensed as a reverend.

In late 2004, Ina co-founded the BARKA Foundation.  She is currently working on several film and publishing projects for BARKA and on her last trip to Burkina Faso in March 2008, initiated BARKA’s first micro-loan program to a collective of 87 women to create sustainable businesses.

Ina is a firm believer that if every high school student visited an indigenous culture it could change the world.

Esu Anahata

Esu also goes by many names, including his African-given name, Yieni Ye, light from the sun.  To former classmates at Williams College and colleagues in the corporate world he is known as Howard Ross Patlis.  Esu is a producer.  A former theatre director, actor and playwright, he was part of the launch team of two cable stations, FOX’s FX and CNN fn where he developed original programming.

After years as a video editor and television producer Esu worked in the field of streaming media on the Internet at such companies as RealNetworks and Microsoft.  He was part of a team that created groundbreaking products including “GoldPass”, one of the internet’s earliest subscription-based media offerings and was the lead producer of NetAid, the largest online live webcast of its time (only recently surpassed by Live8).  He also worked with the ad sales team on packaging content in innovative ways to garner 6 and 7-figure deals.

In 2001, Esu created his own consulting company to focus on the convergence within the technology and media industries.  His focus shifted from content and media to marketing and brand envisioning and implementation.  Esu was the national Marketing Director for Ruckus, a leading college campus online entertainment service provider and at Entriq, devised an international launch of a media portal on the net that allowed content owners to sell and download secure media files from their own websites.  Esu’s consulting work included working in the Windows Media division of Microsoft and an interactive TV startup.

In late 2004 as a way to respond to what he perceived as a need to be of service to the world, he co-founded The BARKA Foundation.  It became clear that all the skills Esu acquired in the corporate world prepared him for this calling.