Peru’s LIMA (AP) Ancient songs are the inspiration for Sadith Silvano’s crafts. The Peruvian woman sings and paints with her brush and eyes on the linen. And her ancestors speak through her voice.
Silvano, 36, from her home and workshop in Lima, Peru, where she moved twenty years ago from Paoyhan, a Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous community in the Amazon, stated, “When we paint, we listen to the inspiration that comes from the music and connect to nature, to our elders.”
She went on to say that these pieces are sacrosanct. We use the energy of our songs to bless our job.
Peru is home to over 33,000 Shipibo-Konibo, according to official statistics.
Many of them moved to cities like Cantagallo, the neighborhood in Lima where Silvano resides, after settling around the Uyacali River.
Her creations and other handpainted fabrics have gradually become more well-known. Known as ken, the Peruvian government designated them as part of the country’s cultural heritage in 2008.
According to Shipibo craftswomen, every ken is different. Each design reflects a woman’s views, worldview, and community.
Silvano, wearing traditional attire with a beaded shawl atop her head, stated that every design tells a story. A Shipibo woman uses it as a means of self-distinction.
She passes on her craft from one generation to the next. The knowledge passed down from elders ties younger generations to their country since wisdom is founded in nature.
Silvano was born in Paoyhan, which is 12 hours away by boat and a fly from Lima.
Few people outside of Shipibo speak any other language in her hometown. People eat from Mother Nature, and doors and windows are unlocked.
Born in Masisea, not far from Paoyhan, 48-year-old healer Adela Sampayo relocated to Cantagallo in 2000, although she claims that the Amazon is the source of all her abilities.
According to Sampayo, who is seated in the lotus posture within the house and offers ayahuasca and other cures for people who are sick and have a wounded body or soul, my mother has been treating me with traditional medicine since I was a young child.
According to Sampayo, she gave me plants to help me get stronger, stay healthy, and have bravery. That’s how the plants’ energy began to build inside of me.
Through her textiles, she also expresses her viewpoint. She embroiders instead than paints, and each thread conveys a story from her home.
The healer pointed to the leaves stitched on the fabric and stated, “Every plant has a spirit.” And God is the source of healing herbs.
Silvano’s paintings of plants have significance as well. Pure love is symbolized by one of them. A wise man is represented by another. Another, a snake.
According to Silvano, the anaconda holds special meaning for humans. Like a god who watches over us and gives us food and water, it is our guardian.
Her people used to think that the sun was their father and the anacondas were their protectors, she claimed. Catholicism, a new religion, was introduced during colonization, diluting the Indigenous worldview.
Silvano remarked, “We have different religions nowadays.” Catholic and evangelical, but we also honor our other faiths.
She longed for her mountains, her clean sky, and her time spent alone in the jungle for many years after her father brought her to Lima in the hopes of a better future. She learnt how to be tough at a young age, even if life in Paoyhan was not exactly easy.
Illegal logging and Shining Path rebel violence impacted Amazonian communities in the 1990s. Due to the prevalence of poverty and misogyny, many Shibipo women used their passionate singing to teach themselves how to deal with their suffering.
According to Silvano, we use our therapy—designing, painting, and singing—to get through challenging times. We have two songs: one that is uplifting and joyful, and another that is melodious and soul-healing.
Silvano stated that few Shipibo girls are encouraged to pursue education or earn a life on their own. They are instructed to wait for a husband instead. and to put up with whatever mistreatment, infidelity, or discomfort they could experience after becoming married.
People tell us, “Take it, he’s the father of your children,” despite the pain we endure. “Take it,” Silvano urged, “he’s your husband.” However, we are wounded on the inside. What then do we do? We sing.
Mothers teach their daughters this lesson: if you’re harmed at home, get your cloth and brush and go. Sit far away, by yourself. Paint and connect with your ken. And sing while you paint.
According to Silvano, that is how we are mending. We are free because of our songs and kens.
Delia Pizarro makes jewelry in the workshop where she currently works and raises her two children alone. She makes birds out of bright beads and sings as well.
“I didn’t sing before,” Pizarro remarked. I didn’t want to talk and was very obedient, but Sadith’s sister Olin told me, “You can do this.” I am now a single mother, yet I am free to travel as I like. I am capable of fighting and defending myself. I feel appreciated.
The things they create for the market have a range of figures. In addition to anacondas, they like to show herons, which the elders valued, and jaguars, which stand in for ladies.
It can take up to one and a half months to finish a Shipibo cloth. The natural pigments and other materials needed to make the cloth are imported from the Amazon.
The black color used by Silvano is extracted from a bark tree that grows in Paoyhan. Local cotton is used to make the fabric. The mud used to set the colors comes from the Uyacali river.
I like it when a foreigner comes and leaves with something from my community, said Silvano, touching one of her freshly painted textiles to bless it for a quick sale.
She said that her people s crafts were barely known when she and her father first arrived in Lima 20 years ago. But in her view, things have now changed.
In Cantagallo, where around 500 Shipibo families have settled, many make a living selling their crafts.
My art has empowered me and is my loyal companion, Silvano said. Thanks to my mother, my grandmother and my sisters, I have a knowledge that has allowed me to open doors.
Here s the energy of our children, our ancestral world and our community, she added, her textiles still between her hands. Here s the inspiration from our songs.
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