Elder Shipibo Tribeswoman Speaks

Tantamunay have held a deep inquiry into the story behind how the Shipibo arrived at this moment of now in their communities over their last 6 years of service. Abuela Hilda (Grandmother Hilda has been living in the jungle for all of her 70 years and shared the back story as to how the Shipibo came to be living as the are now over her 70 years of observation of her jungle community.

This inquiry has been transcribed and then checked back with Hilda once written to ensure that her voice has been accurately shared with the world, with clear permissions. 

My village wasn’t always like this. In the past the Shipibo didn’t know hunger and now with the most recent events I have watched my village experience hunger.

When I was younger our homes were surrounded by trees of all varieties, we lived on the river and our homes were abundant with trees heavy with fruit, all kinds of fruit, we had mangos, lemons, manderins, zapote, calmitos, guava, ohh so much fruit. In those times the rivers were full of fish, BIG fish such as Paiche, that could be shared amongst the communities and we had fishermen in our tribes who would go out and fish for the village and bring back fish for every hut. In the village everyone had a destiny that was of benefit to the village, some were destined to be fishermen to bring fish for the village, some were destined to be hunters to go into our rich abundant forests and bring back food for the village, some were destined to be Shamans to heal the people of the village and some were destined to sew our tapestries. Everyone had enough to eat and the forests were abundant. At that time we did not steal from each other as everyone had everything they needed.

Then the loggers came, they came without permission and began cutting down our big trees, the ancestors of our village. They came from the city, from the business and wanted the trees to sell to make wooden planks. We couldn’t say no, they harmed our people. They offered us money for the trees and in some communities they offered schools and medicine for the trees.

When they took the big trees the land began to go into the river and nature took our land. When the rivers would flood the land fell into the rivers and we had to move our homes away from the rivers to not be flooded in our homes, with it they took the food surrounding our homes.

Then the fishermen came, they came from the cities to fish to take the fish to the city to sell for money. The city also brought pollution which meant that the fish connected to our community had gone further down stream and we had to go further away to feed our villages.

This was when we had to begin to live from money.

The women in the communities began to sell their tapestries in exchange for money to eat, before we would exchange them for the things the jungle wouldn’t provide, like rice and salt.

This has continued on. The Maestro of the village brings tourists who want to heal and that brings us work and people to whom we can sell our tapestries. The children of the village are now going to the cities to have an education to get better jobs as professionals to be able to support their parents to live in the communities, to make their lives better.

It is not like it was before in the communities and only the elders wear our traditional clothes now, they wear clothes from the cities, but not me, I will always wear my traditional clothes, like my ancestors. I was born here in my village and I will not go to the city, I will stay in this village always., it is my home.

The lesson from this tribal story is one of the localized impact when a community goes out of balance from nature. The tribal peoples only ever took what they needed from their surroundings, why would there ever be a need to take anything more than you need, when you live in an abundant world provided by nature. Then came those who wanted to take from nature for profit, to turn nature into money and all of the imbalances occurred, the villagers had to start going further and further away to survive in their surrounding and in short began taking the abundance of the neighboring villages and so the chain of lack began to spread. This is humbling when observed from a microcosm macrocosm consideration of our earth. 

This is an important message for the global collective and also informs Tantamunay in all of our connections to the tribe, particularly when applied to our busnest tribal transparency model, we will only ever take what we need, everything else is gifted back to the communities and the nature that they support, it all goes back into the cycle of growth and love for the global village.

In our investigation it was observed that the tribes are taking from each other now, they have entered the money world and with that has come the energy of separation. There is jealousy in the tribes of the elders who are connected to tourism, Shamanic tourism has birthed many people who are using the medicine to make money, not wise elders who have dieted many years with scared respect for the path of the wise elders, the villagers try to create ponds of fish to feed their families and they are stolen in the night, when tourists come in there is sadness if one sells an the other doesn’t, it’s a story of one who stole the tourist. There is lack in the villages and before there was full abundance and this is having a huge impact upon the tribal way of life, they are moving away from the usual collaborative way of working together, in harmony with nature and in harmony with themselves and each other and their children are moving to the cities.

Our earth is not one of lack, it is one of abundance.

Those on a spiritual path or those who live in harmonious balance with nature know this deeply in the soul.

Tantamunays abundance coming into these communities is not the money we have but our name, the soul we bring into circles, our understanding of this story and how it relates to the global story, the relevance it has to all of our lives. The abundance of Tantamunay is our heart, our commitment and our integrity. We are moved by all we do to end any observed resonance with the concept of lack from a people naturally birthed to the earths abundance, they have been robbed of their birthright, as have we all. May we always be supported to return balance to the jungle wherever we can and to all of those that come to the jungle to heal and all of those that live in the jungle, may we all be in balance and may we all be abundant. 

We are One

For all our relations

Oni Koshi Rao