A group of spiritual leaders at a retreat in the northern rivers conspired to mislead police about the death of a man who had just taken a cocktail of alternative “medicines”, a Byron Bay courtroom has heard.
The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich also heard that a Brazilian religious tradition fusing Christianity with Amazonian shamanic practices – including the drinking of hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca – gained increasing sway over an Australian community known as the “Church of Ayahuasca” in the lead-up to that fatal ceremony.
The Antonovich inquest resumed on Wednesday for three final days of testimony, a year after first sitting and three months after being adjourned on the cliffhanger of new witnesses and the prospect of fresh light being cast upon the murky events of 16 October 2021.
Antonovich’s death occurred during a six-day retreat after he endured a prolonged reaction to a “kambo” ritual held that Saturday morning – his pain and swelling lasting right up to the ayahuasca ceremony the night on which he would die.
Cameron Kite, who allegedly administered the kambo – toxic secretions of an Amazonian frog – is due to appear before the inquest on Thursday, while the man who allegedly presided over the ayahuasca and organised the retreat, Soulore “Lore” Solaris, is the sole witness currently slated for Friday.
Both men are set to appear last so as to allow them the chance to respond to days of testimony that has included allegations of secrecy and cover up, before coroner Teresa O’Sullivan determines not only the cause of Antonovich’s death but whether or not to recommend the pursuit of criminal charges.
Both kambo and ayahuasca were illegal in Australia at the time of the retreat.
On Wednesday, Kite’s former partner took to the witness stand.
Chelsea Hope, who was then in a relationship with Kite, told the coroner that she was unsettled when she saw Solaris gesture to Kite and ask that he take a “not small” cup of ayahuasca to Antonovich.
Hope said she had taken part in more than 10 ayahuasca ceremonies led by Solaris since 2017 and had never before seen him ask someone else to administer “the medicine”.
Further deepening her unease was the fact that both men had been involved in the group discussions that had swirled around Antonovich as to whether or not to take him to hospital.
Hope said that Laara “Samart” Cooper, a kambo practitioner, had advised that the ayahuasca could “help shift” Antonovich from his prolonged state of kambo-induced discomfort.
After Antonovich died and Kite, Solaris and Cooper spoke to authorities at the scene, Hope said she comforted her partner who was “a mess”.
“I hugged him and he was crying and I asked him, in that moment: ‘Did you tell the truth?’,” she said.
Hope said Kite raised his palms in the air and said words to the effect of: “They took over.”
She then claimed Cooper asked: “Do you think we should have told the truth?”
Hope alleged that Cooper and Lore had instructed so-called “guardians” – part of an inner circle that watched over the ceremonies – to drive to Antonovich’s house and tell his flatmate not to mention to police that he had taken ayahuasca in an attempt to “protect the medicines”.
Cooper’s legal representative denied both claims.
Hope said she had previously been a guardian, though at the beginning of her involvement in the community that role had been referred to as a “helper”.
That changed, she said, as more adherents of Santo Daime, a Brazilian syncretic religion, became involved and the Australian group began adopting some of their terminology and practices.
Hope said she argued straight away that the community needed to “own the truth”, believing it would inevitably come out.
“I was already going to the place of this,” she said, gesturing at the courtroom, sobbing.
“Of jail, of all of it.”
• This article was amended on 23 May 2024 because a previous version misnamed Laara “Samart” Cooper as Laara “Simat” Cooper.
