The Shipibo Market was founded in 2016 with a simple but heartfelt intention: to help create sustainable trade for Indigenous families in Peru and Brazil.
What began as one relationship soon became a much bigger project.
I was first asked to help sell the arts and crafts of a Shipibo family who were only able to share their work with people visiting their retreats. Their pieces were beautiful, meaningful, and connected in a long lineage of their tradition and culture, yet their access to buyers was extremely limited.
It became clear that what was needed was not just occasional support, but a bridge that could connect Indigenous artisans and medicine communities with people who genuinely valued their work. So I said yes, and The Shipibo Market was birthed.
Now, 10 years on, The Shipibo Market is supportsing Indigenous communities in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico, helping create respectful, reciprocal pathways for sacred art, artisan goods, and traditional medicines to reach a wider community.
Why This Work Matters
From the beginning, this work has been about far more than selling beautiful art.
It has been about helping preserve culture and to support the continuity of Indigenous traditions that are under increasing pressure from poverty, modernisation, displacement, and the global loss of ancestral ways of life.
For many Indigenous families, traditional arts are not simply decoration or craft, they are memory of the acestors, they are identity and they are prayer.
When these art forms disappear, something much deeper is lost.
Shipibo art carries a profound spiritual meaning. The geometric patterns, often known as sacred designs or kené, are more than visual forms, they are expressions of cosmology, medicine, song, dreams, and relationship to the unseen world.
Traditionally, these patterns are learned through oral tradition, observation, practice, and immersion in community life, but unfortunately, this knowledge is at risk.
Like many traditional art forms, Shipibo artistry is increasingly vulnerable as younger generations face pressure to move toward modern livelihoods, urban migration, and economic survival. When traditional work does not provide enough income, it becomes harder for families to pass these teachings on to a younger generation that is tempted by city life. Skills that once moved naturally from grandmothers to daughters and through the wider community can begin to break down when there is no longer enough support, value, or opportunity around them.
In this way, the loss of Shipibo art is not only about aesthetics. It is about the erosion of language, symbolism, ancestral wisdom, women’s knowledge, spiritual worldview, and cultural continuity. Supporting Indigenous artistry is therefore not just an act of appreciation, it’s an act of preservation.
Adelina, who is one of the Shipibo women I was working with in the beginning, went on to start a Shipibo association to help give women a trade and to encourage the younger generation to learn and continue the art.
This was deeply meaningful to witness and support.
Adelina started with three Shipibo ladies, but now there are over 50 of them.
The association became a way not only to create income for women, but to strengthen heritage, ensuring that the next generation would still have access to these teachings, skills, symbols, and traditions. When women are supported in their artistry, families benefit, communities benefit, and culture has a stronger chance of surviving.
This is one of the reasons The Shipibo Market exists: not only to sell Indigenous art, but to help create the conditions in which these traditions can continue to live.
The Shipibo Market was created as a bridge, a bridge between Indigenous artisans and a global community, sacred tradition and conscious exchange. A bridge between cultural preservation and sustainable livelihood and between people seeking meaningful, authentic items and the communities who carry these traditions.
Everything shared through The Shipibo Market comes with a deeper story. These are not mass-produced goods. They are the work of real people, real communities, and living traditions.
Our mission is to support Indigenous communities through respectful trade while helping protect the cultural traditions, arts, and medicines that are at risk of being lost.
We are committed to:
The Shipibo Market is more than a shop, It’s a long-term commitment to relationship, respect, and reciprocity.
It is a place where sacred art, artisan work, and traditional medicines can be shared in a way that honours their source. It’s also a place where people can support something larger than a purchase, the continuation of culture, the livelihood of communities, and the survival of ancestral traditions.
Today, The Shipibo Market supports communities in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico.
While the journey began with one Shipibo family, the vision has grown into a broader commitment to supporting Indigenous communities across different regions, always with the same core values: reverence, fairness, authenticity, and cultural respect.
As we approach 10 years this May, I feel deeply grateful for every artisan, family, community, and customer who has been part of this journey.
Thank you for being here and for supporting work that is rooted in preservation, prayer, and respectful trade.
Every purchase helps support Indigenous families, women’s artistry, cultural continuity, and the survival of traditions that deserve to be honoured and kept alive.
With respect,
Founder of The Shipibo Market
Jessica Lewis
