Demer · Korin Niwe
Pucallpa, Ucayali · Peru · founder of Fundación Kene Rao
01 · Demer
Born in the forests of Ucayali.
Demer was born in the native community of Nueva Samaria, in the district of Iparía, province of Coronel Portillo, region of Ucayali — a tropical community of forests, rivers and cochas (oxbow lakes), where as a child he played football, planted yuca and plantain with his family, and learned from his grandfather how to make arrows and fish in the rivers.
It was a very beautiful life, very harmonious, with much love, beside my family, in the middle of nature.
Demer · Korin Niwe
His father was a primary-school teacher, but also a farmer, fisherman, and master of medicinal plants. He taught Demer to prepare remedies, to make canoes, to build a house — and above all, not to forget his roots.
His mother was a master artisan, expert in the embroidery and painted cloth of the Shipibo-Konibo tradition. She taught Demer to paint and embroider. When he was two years old, she placed the kené on his navel and began the dieta with the kené waste plant — the traditional way to receive the wisdom of the designs.
She made me dieta the kené waste so I could obtain the knowledge and wisdom of the kené. She explained to me what the meanings were. The kené is everything to me. It is a universe.
On his mother, his teacher
His mother passed away in 2016. It was the hardest loss of his life.
I still carry a trauma, a mark that stayed with me forever. After her death I also became ill, with much depression. But I came out, and I was strong. What I carry from her is her knowledge, her wisdom — the kené, the designs of the Shipibo-Konibo culture. That is the most beautiful thing I have.
On what she left him
Today Demer is a father of three. He is studying Economics at the Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, self-financing his studies through his work. His dream is to become the first economist of the Shipibo-Konibo people.
