Tantamunay work with many Shipibo Women to co create the Shipibo clothing from different Shipibo communities situated along the banks of the Ucayali river. This part of Tantamunay’ s Dream Weaving is very much about women supporting women. Tantamunay work with a core group of women in the Shipibo who formed an association to ensure that the Artisan work of the Shipibo is recognised.

This group is about collaboration, sharing love and fun and the women work together on everything they do. Tantamunay have been building bridges and relationships within the circle for 7 years.  

The Artisan Crafts of the Shipbo are more than just about work, they enable the women to stay in their circles, to share and laugh, to stay in their jungle communities and to stay with their children. Weaving the Shipibo Tapestires is an core part of what it means to be a Shipibo Woman. The women in the Shipibo lineage have always embroidered, its part of their culture and Tantamunay are committed to assisting these women to stay in circles, to be a bridge to a wider marketplace to sell their crafts and for everyone to be valued in the process. 

Historically this bridge was not needed, as the abundant jungle provided everything that was needed for the Shipibo, food, shelter, water community and medicines. The women would Embroider Ayahuasca Visions on tapestries and use them as a bartering tool in exchange for items not provided by the jungle, such as salt or candles. Historically a boat would arrive to the down river communities bringing such items for exchange the river shop, this world of the ancestors informs Tantamunay’s call to bring back the boat so that all are provided for, by bringing back this system we can again ensure the abundance for all principle is applied in ancestral ways. 

Currently the Amazon along the Ucayali is deeply deforested and with that has gone the abundance of the jungle. The women began leaving the communities in search of a marketplace, travelling further and further to seek tourists to buy their crafts as their area has become saturated with Shipibo Women wandering the streets and many in Pucallpa look upon them with contempt. They have experienced racism and cultural shame has begun.  Tantamunay are serving as a bridge to these communities to enable a sustainable income for as many as we can serve. Our work does not concentrate in only one area but all along the Ucayali enabling an equal sharing of the abundance of connecting to a global marketplace and ensuring the sustainability of this part of Shipibo Culture in as many places as possible, bringing work to the doors of huts in villages. 

Embroidering the Ayahuasca Visions is about staying in tribe and staying in circles, passing down of Tribal Wisdom amongst the trees in the silence of the Jungle. We are in a time of the rise of the Divine Feminine and applying the Feminine principles to all that our shared mother calls for. We are all women and we bleed together, we rise together and we grow together, the story of any woman is the story of all women and so here we rise together, Tantamunay and Shipibo Sistars, Koshi Ainbo, which means strong women in Shipibo. 

Thank you for supporting Tantamunay to be a bridge for these women.