In the framework of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, which we celebrate this Saturday, August 9, we share a testimony that invites us to stop and look with different eyes. It is the voice of a missionary of the Missionary Company of the Sacred Heart, companion of our sisters in the team of Indigenous Pastoral of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pucallpa, who opens a window to the life of the Shipibo-Konibo people.
Your congregation has been immersed in the indigenous world for more than forty years. We have entered into this mission in two ways: for the past sixteen years, through our educational presence in some Shipibo communities, and also by accompanying aspects of pastoral work. This testimony brings us closer to a profound experience, where coexistence becomes learning, and cultural difference, a mirror that questions and transforms us.
Talking about the Shipibo-Konibo people from my personal experience has led me to look at myself and to look at this people. This contact has led me to question many of my approaches, for example, to leave aside everything that is a western culture, to leave my way of thinking and to start living in the midst of a totally different human group.
My name is Conchi and I belong to the Religious Congregation of the Missionary Company of the Sacred Heart, a congregation that was born in Tarancon, a small town in the province of Cuenca, Spain. Our charism is specifically missionary, Ad Gentes: to leave our places of origin to go to the poorest and most remote places in the countries of the South, where we currently have our communities.
I joined the native community of Caco-Macaya in 1997, an indigenous community of the Shipibo-Konibo ethnic group, in the department of Ucayali, Peru, approximately 280 km from Pucallpa, the capital of the department, sailing upriver for more than 18 hours. This community was founded in 1977. The sisters who first came to live here teamed up with a Canadian priest and three Brothers of Charity, also Canadian. Later, when the first ones left, the Colombian Xaverian Fathers from Yarumal joined the group.
The first contact with this Shipibo people made me see that it was a people that revolved around the community -communality as a way of life, although at the beginning it was not like that-. They held meetings in the communal premises that lasted for hours (we also participated, because we were considered communal members), but they had all the time they needed to deal with the issues they had to deal with. They were very democratic: anyone could participate and express their ideas or opinions. Another aspect that struck me was their relationship with time: they were not in a hurry and spoke calmly. Everyone had a say and everyone was given the floor. When they spoke, they said what they thought and could go on for a long time; they included anecdotes, jokes, etc. in their speech.
Another relevant aspect was the community work: cleaning the streets, community boundaries, farm roads, ports, etc. These were jobs performed by the whole village, men and women. They also carried out “mingas”: jobs in which a family invited people from the village to help them open a farm, build a house or a kitchen, or do whatever work they needed.
In the community they emphasized taking care of the forest, because that is where they got their trees for the construction of the house, the “emponado” (floor of the house, which is made with a type of palm) or their kitchen, to make their canoe and the tools for the kitchen or other work. All the work was done by hand. In the bush (which is what they call it when they go into the jungle) they hunted and got their food, they went to the “cochas” (lagoons) to get their fish. In the jungle they also found their medicinal plants to heal themselves and the seeds to make their objects, for their ornaments, dyes or materials to make jars and bowls for food, their clothes; everything, everything they took from the forest, where they found what they needed to live. It was when I discovered the close relationship between man and his territory; they wereone with everything, how muchlearning and how much wisdom in the way they related to nature! A relationship of mutual care, wisdom acquired through observation.
As time went by, I discovered many other values, such as sharing. They never ate alone. They also shared the products they brought from the farm: plantain, yucca, other species of tubers, fruits from the forest and fish -which was abundant at that time-. They shared everything they had, and the custom was to return something of what one possessed. This was reciprocity, another of the values of this group.
It is a welcoming and attentive people, who immediately establish a relationship with people; cheerful and open, not conflictive. They are also a hard-working people, although with a different way of understanding work. I would say that they humanize themselves by working. They work to live and to live as intensely as possible. Work is more like a party: while they work they drink masato (a drink made of fermented yucca) and they are happy. They build their own houses, make their “chacras” (cultivation plots) of yucca, corn or plantain; they dedicate a lot of time to hunting, but above all to fishing. They make their own canoes, oars and utensils. Men and women participate in everything, but women, in addition to their farms, are mainly involved in housework and caring for their children, whom they adore. They are great craftswomen: they have their own designs, the kene, and create true wonders in embroidered or painted fabrics, as well as in ceramics. It is a work in which they constantly innovate: they never repeat or copy. In these expressions they reflect their cosmovision and their connection with nature. Currently there are women who have opened up to the national and international market and are the promoters of the family economy.
Another thing that has left its mark on me is their way of understanding life: a free life. They live for themselves, they have their times of hard work, but they also take time to rest, relax, have fun, to “be themselves”.
As Western culture has entered their communities, new needs have arisen, especially economic ones, which have transformed their lives. So now, both men and women see the need to leave the community and settle in the outskirts of the cities, work and look for money to meet these new demands: the education of their children in the city (due to the low quality of education in their communities), the construction of houses with durable materials, new ways of celebrating prom or birthday parties, clothing, cell phones, food, gas stoves, among others.
Nowadays, migration to the outskirts of the cities – where they live in worse conditions – has become a priority for many families. This contact with the new environment, without previous preparation, added to the existing discrimination, causes them to take on the worst of Western culture and lose many of their values. One of the biggest concerns is the loss of the language: many stop speaking it because of the rejection they feel, putting at risk their culture and their identity as a people.
The challenge for us today is to accompany these people in the preservation of their cultural values, ensuring that they do not lose their identity and can contribute to the great cultural diversity that exists in the region. We realize that this is a very difficult and complex task, not only because they are leaving behind ancestral customs and knowledge -which is normal, because customs change and culture is dynamic-, but also because of the changes in their thinking and mentality. Another mentality is entering into young people without return, a necessary path for them to understand the importance of their roots as a guarantee of the continuity of a people. A people that is a history, a people that knows that it comes from a common past and is heading towards a common future. And, as we see, history never ceases to surprise us.
Sister Conchi López,
Missionary of the Sacred Heart Missionary Company
