ONANYATI

ONANYATI means "the wisdom of elders" in the Shipibo language.

Based in Peru, this group of Amazonia artists create works based on reviving traditional culture inspired by traditional teachings. This artistic and cultural project is dedicated to the preservation of the Amazonia and the culture of indigineous Indian peoples through art. The artists of ONANYATI find their sources of insipiration in their mythology, traditions spiritual and secular, as well as in the increasing threatened biodiversity of the their home.

ONANYATI hopes to not only to share their native culture

to the general public, but also to inform the this same public about

the econonic and ecological threats to their ancestral forests.

"The art of the sacred visionary"

Far beyond simple "native art", the artists of ONANYATI give form and color to traditional legends and spiritual visions involving contact with the Spirits of Nature. These chamanistic works flow out of a tradition as old as humanity, reinvigorating these much maligned traditional spiritual practices, snatched from near oblivion. Here at the border between animism and a living sacred mythology, this atypical art follows a new path through the magic of artistic creation.

Trances, deep meditation, initiatic rites and ritual foodstuffs have brought mankind, in every civilisation and epoch, into internal worlds inhabitant by forces, good or malific, the realm of gods and demons. Following in the footsteps of mystics, artists of always and everywhere -- on pyramid wall, on cathedral stone, in temple carvings, in paintings, weavings, sculptures -- have tried to reproduce this mystic world, using symbolic representations to reveal the teachings of the gods.

The teaching plants of Amazonia have revealed to initiates the fabulous landscapes and forest of the inner world. These submerged worlds, full of wisdom and madness, speak to us of ourselves, of our own joys and fears, of shadow and light from the dawn of humanity, still living in ancestral memories.

Evil sorcerors and healing sages, men searching their own meaning discover virgin territories to explore, a gift of the inward looking soul made external through the talent of contemporary creators from the Peruvian Amazonia. These colorful statues resulting from this visonary art serves the same purpose as cathedral sculptures (which themselves were once colorfully painted) giving a visible, symbol-laden access to the Sacred.

A 100% fair-trade project, ONANYATI provides financial resources to the Amazonian peoples so that they can protect their natural habitat while producing renewable rewards from the rainforest.

These artists, committed to the survival of their green temple as well as to their own, offer 40% of their income to local reforesting and tree farming projects and an additional 20% to the promotion of living Sacred Art. They retain the remaining 40% as their fair trade subsistance.