Jamaica’s Mother 🌳Trees Are Older Than Colonization Older Than the Name Jamaica Itself. Ancient records and oral histories,show the land we now call Jamaica was once known as Escameca a Moorish and Arawak/Taino name tied to the original Lucano Confederacy and the Maroon nations who never fully surrendered their sovereignty. These hills, forests, and valleys were home to ancient Mother Trees living symbols of the Tree of Life, known in sacred traditions as Ashira, the divine feminine principle,