#lamista

Kené is an art form that originated with the Shipibo-Konibo in the Central Amazon of Peru, centering around the Ucayali River, an important water source that is considered a head water of the Amazon River. The Shipibo-Konibo people used to be two rival groups. But after the Spanish came to colonize and convert them, in 1766, everyone banded together and brought about the largest rebellion against the invading occupation in their region of Peru. This resulted in a unification of the groups through "through intermarriage and communal rituals"

Four Shipibo-Konibo women and an infant pose for a photo. All of them are wearing tradition Shipibo-Konibo outfits with geometric patterns and bright colors, and jewelry made of local seeds, shells, metals and beads.

Through many centuries of oppression from both the Incas and the manufactured genocide from the Spaniards, many Amazonian groups have fought tooth and nail for the right to protect their lives, their home in the Amazon Rainforest, and their cultural lifestyle. Kené is a big part of that, as the artistic practices within the Shipibo-Konibo culture are tied into functional tools and clothing, personal artistic development, and deep spiritual significance that is folded into communal rituals.

Sara Flores, a Shipibo-Konibo artist who worked on her craft for 71 years before major museums finally started accepting indigenous art, draws the design for her Kené. Her hands are steady as she holds a small stick with vegetable dyes to help her draw the lines on an already intricate geometric pattern on fabric.

As a result, Shipibo-Konibo artists specialize in developing personal reflects of "the artist’s unique interpretation of the Shipibo cosmology". From a young age, they work to connect to the land around them, their mothers teaching them how to develop Kené, gently wiping ipobekené leaves and press them onto their eyelids so that they can better receive designs to their minds.

Those designs that come to them through mindfulness, spirituality, and rituals called samas. As they build up their skills and inspiration, they're able to apply their art to many different mediums. They apply their designs to their body, wooden utensils, ceramics, and textiles. Embroidery on textiles has the more specific name "Kewé".

A gorgeous tapestry of Kewé in rings of the piece. This results in bright pigments and traditional motifs of geometric designs, leaves, and the traditional snake of Amazonian cosmology all in beautiful concentric circles. This piece was made by Olinda Silvano in her installation and collaboration with MOA museum.

"The Kené have a deep symbolic significance as they represent the worldview of indigenous peoples, energy pathways, the Milky Way, the geography of the forest, the wildlife, and [more]. Kené are the healing visions of indigenous peoples when they consume mother plants for therapeutic purposes. The Kenés are sung when the women go across the lines with the finger over the Shipibo fabrics expressing the emotions that they reflect."

I was so happy when I learned about Kené, because I hadn't realized that I was already acquainted with it. Beyond seeing the designs everywhere in tourism shops, especially in the Amazon region, I've lived for short periods in Peru throughout my life, and when I was a child, my parents enrolled me in a Peruvian school for a few months while we visited my family. During that time, I ended up performing a dance recital where the different classes each wore traditional dress and did a performance based on the region of indigenous practices. And our class performed a traditional Shipibo-Konibo dance!

The event that brought Kené back to my life was a trip I took to Peru to visit with my parents, who were doing another multi-month trip to visit family in Peru. Because my mother and I have been working on ancestral research for our family, we decided to visit our ancestral home of Lamas in the San Martin province of Peru to learn directly from our cultural cousins who stayed in the region.

Our focus for this trip was to learn about our heritage as Lamista, who are indigenous to this region. So while most of the trip was centered around Lamista heritage, I was excited and surprised to see the influence of Kené from the Shipibo actually extended throughout the Peruvian Amazon, even if there weren't prominent Shipibo communities in the area. There for sure is a pressure from the tourism industry to commodify cultural practices like Kené, but you can still feel the pride from locals for their culture. And artist I bought a shirt from spoke passionately about her heritage, citing a very common refrain from the people of La Selva (The Rainforest) of having "Sangre Caliente" or "hot blood." They're passionate and resilient in the face of continuous oppression, and they're proud of it.

I would say that also flows through to Kené itself. The art form is very consistently seen as the artist's personal connection to the spiritual world and their craft, and it gives people the power to invest in the community in the face of of capitalism and colonialism. It's incredible seeing how it fits so prolifically throughout the lives of the Shipibo-Konibo people and gives them strength.

If you got this far, thank you for letting me ramble about my culture. Amazonian Peruvians have very little representation both within Peru and the world at large, so getting to preserve and share my perspective on it means a lot!