These beaded necklaces were handmade by Shipibo-Konibo artist Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano, who uses ancestral designs known as kené. Kené can be 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.

Length: 18"

Variations:

Constellation: This pattern represents the Southern Cross constellation, one of the brightest and most important groups of stars in the southern hemisphere. This constellation would serve as a guide for those who would journey at night.

Butterfly: This pattern represents a butterfly, a bringer of good luck in the Shipibo-Konibo worldview.

Mother & Daughter: The artist uses maya kené—contemporary geometric patterns—to represent familial unity, specifically the bonds between mother and daughter.