This beaded bracelet was handmade by Shipibo-Konibo artist Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano using ancestral designs known as kené, inspired by the patterned skin of el Ronín, the sacred serpent in the Shipibo-Konibo worldview. Kené is expressed through pottery, weaving, drawing, and music. Sacred and medicinal plants such as ayahuasca and piri piri are ingested in order for these designs to materialize.

As part of the exhibition Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, Silvano collaborated with her son Ronin Koshi and Wilma Maynas to create Non Kenébo, 2022, a three-panelled painting of geometric and curvilinear designs that convey creation stories, mythologies, and everyday accounts. Kené art is profoundly anchored in ancestral knowledge of shamanism, traditional crafts, and sacred plants, and it is powerfully infused with political activism in defense of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples.

Across the world, Silvano is renowned for her muralist practice and community activism. Much of the proceeds from her jewellery and embroidery sales are redistributed to fund educational, social, and cultural initiatives in her community of Cantagallo, Lima, Peru.

Product Information

Dimensions: 18.5 cm long