A living culture,
not a backdrop.
History, language, oral histories, mythology — the Shipibo-Konibo world as its people live it now, recorded and searchable.
The river decides who is who.
Along the Ucayali — Okayari — identity follows the water: Chíponki, downriver, historically the Shetebo; Napónbekon, midriver — a newer term; Réboki, upriver, the Konibo. The Pisqui has its own people, the Piskibo. Together: paro jonibo — people of the river.
Even "water" divides with a precision English lacks — páro the river, jene wild water, ompax gathered water.
Shipibo Joi, by the numbers.
A Panoan-family language (ISO code shp) with roughly 35,000 speakers along the Ucayali — and officially endangered: in Peru's 2017 census, thousands who identified as Shipibo-Konibo reported not speaking it. It is agglutinative — meaning built by stacking suffixes onto roots — famously precise (no generic word for macaw: each species has its own name), and rich in words that sound like what they mean. It was never traditionally written; whether the kené designs once encoded meaning is a debate scholars started and Shipibo voices should finish.
Sections launching as they're documented
Built from original photography and recorded voices — never stock imagery or recycled clichés.
Mythology
The stories the culture thinks with — told by its own tellers.
Oral histories
Recorded, translated, and owned by the people who tell them.
History & migration
Communities along the Ucayali, and urban Shipibo life today.
Music & song
From traditional song to shipi-reggae and cumbia.
Food & river life
Fishing, plantains, cooking — daily sustenance and its vocabulary.