Musuk Nolte: Shawi (Peruvian Amazonas)Artist Statement: Shawi is the name of an indigenous group inh

Musuk Nolte: Shawi (Peruvian Amazonas)

Artist Statement: Shawi is the name of an indigenous group inhabiting a spit of land in the Province of Alto Amazonas, in the depths of the Peruvian jungle. Even when living two days away from the closest city, over the course of centuries, they have lived in complete isolation, resisting and holding out against the indifference and ignorance of the Peruvian State.

In the late nineteenth century people came to extract rubber from their trees, in the twentieth, they cut them down to use their timber and since then, they come for the oil beneath their feet. Nevertheless, because of their striving, the Shawi people have managed to keep more territory than other indigenos groups and they have become throughout the years a symbol of the indigenous communities’ struggle to preserve their land from the ever-growing interest in exploiting its rich natural resources.

They are one of the least studied groups living in the Amazon Rainforest, however, one of the largest in number, with 13,000 inhabitants scattered through the jungle. They bare an ancient way of unabridged coexistence with the forest, by learning about their mystical powers guided by shamans. These shamans foster Shawi’s religious magic by developing their knowledge of plants and have always been highly respected in the Amazonian legends because of their voluntary isolation. Many of these important lessons are disclosed when speaking Ayahuasca. The initiation ceremonies for the taking of Ayahuasca are carried out between the headwaters of the Paranapura and Sillay rivers since before the Inca period. It is a vine that has psychotropic properties which enable communication with the spirits of the forest.