Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe

Born 1971 in Sheroana, Venezuela Lives in Pori-Pori, Venezuela Yanomami

Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe is an Indigenous Yanomami artist from Sheroana, a small community of the Upper Orinoco River in the Venezuelan Amazon. Working primarily with drawing and handmade papers crafted from native fibers, he draws from his ancestral knowledge of the signs and symbols of Yanomami culture, and their application in basketry and body painting for ritual ceremonies. While such practices are female in Yanomami culture, he has consciously recovered these motifs to build his visual lexicon. Hakihiiwe’s work is a very personal interpretation of Yanomami tradition and identity; his drawings and paintings speak to his rites and beliefs, observations of the jungle and concern for the ecosystem.

The Flood

Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, 2021

In those times there was no water, there were no creeks and no rivers. Omawe’s son was always crying because he was very thirsty.

Looking for a place to pierce the land with his bow, Omawe knelt and could hear there was water running under the earth.

A thunderous noise was heard when Omawe pierced the earth. When he removed his bow water started to burst until it reached the sky. It went to the house of Thunder. There where Thunder lives, there’s much water. That water that reached the sky formed a reservoir. That is why it rains. Omawe’s son kept drinking water until he was swollen. Omawe tried to close the hole with a stone, but earth collapsed, and a river was created. Water spread everywhere. To escape the deluge some tied their hammocks to the palm trees, but the force of the water took some Yanomami. Others ran and took shelter on the Maiyo mountain.

The flood wasn’t stopping. The Yanomami that sheltered on the Maiyo could see how waters kept rising, and they were very worried.

Many days passed until water was lapping at their feet.
Everyone was wondering what to do. Then they asked a man to hand over his mother as a sacrifice.

The old woman was crying, begging for her life. They cut her hair, painted her body and adorned her ears with flowers. And since the waters were not receding, they threw her into the water. The waters started to withdraw almost immediately.

But a long time passed before the soil was ready for planting. Those who survived planted ocumo*, plantain, yucca and cambur**.

The old woman survived and turned into a large black fish, the Toruno**, and lived there in the Parawa* river.

As told by Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe to Luis Romero.

Footnotes

Ocumo* = Malanga or Chonque
Cambur**= banana
Toruno** = a type of large catfish
Parawa ** = Orinoco river

Puu mothoshi 2020

acrylic on handmade paper