For this CTF series 13, Dizon sculpts a multi-layered landscape of sounds from real and imagined spaces, guiding us into the forest of the “Terira Ineenkani” or “the Unseen Ones.” This musical composition reimagines an ancestral tale of anthropomorphism and the dream premonition told to us by David Ríos Rivera (C.N. Shipetiari), who learned the story from his father when he was a young boy in 1973. The story is called “Kenkitsarintsi Matsigenka Yatsikakerira Maranke” or “The tale of a man who was bitten by a snake.”

The tale centers around a “seripigari” (shaman) who ventures into the forest or “inkenishi” after having dreamt a vision of a “maranke” (snake), from which he does not take heed. He soon encounters the snake on his path and suffers its bite. To the Matsigenka, the “maranke” spirit eats human souls with the same relish that humans eat the flesh of peccaries. All snakes are objects of terror and loathing. They are the most feared of all animal spirits.(A. Johnson, 2003)

In his effort to escape, therein begins the pursuit by the snake and other animals morphing into humans and the shaman into an animal; which in this case is a “kemari” or tapir. In the Matsigenka world, the distinction between human and animal is ambiguous, signalling towards the deep reservoir in which humans, animals, nature and spirits converge.

Through the syncretization of sounds from the forests, their territory, and the storyteller David himself, Melanie aspires to provoke an emotive journey where the listener converges with the beings of the tale in a liminal space, where uncertainty and possibility unfold in the forest of the mind.

Since 2021, Melanie Dizon and the team at Xapiri Ground have been working with the Matsigenka community of Shipetiari in the Manu Biosphere where they learned, shared and created in collaboration with the children and elders of the community. This piece is dedicated to them. 

Here we share the story of “Kenkitsarintsi Matsigenka Yatsikakerira Maranke” or “The tale of a man who was bitten by a snake” as told by David Ríos Rivera.

Video edition: Melanie Dizon

Photography: Davis Torres, Melanie Dizon

Drawings: David Ríos Rivera

Illustrations: Melanie Dizon

Animation: Amador Zeta 

Translation: Melanie Dizon, Boris Semperi Cabrera, Melanie Dizon

A special thanks to the Matsigenka people of the Shipetiari Indigenous Community for all the years of friendship and for being part of this soundscape of storytelling, and to the creatures, spirits and beings of their forests. 

Crafting the Field by Xapiri Ground is a creative series of musical compositions that express upon the natural and social environments surrounding Indigenous culture and their contemporaries.

Through collaborations with Indigenous artists, sound designers, and music producers we hope to encourage a diffusion between cultures through creative research and mutual respect.

*Original field recordings were captured by Melanie Dizon from the forests and the people of the Shipetiari Indigenous Community in Manu, Madre de Dios, Peru. 

Meet the Collaborators:

Composition by Melanie Dizon 

Mixing and Mastering by Christian Mun

Narration: David Ríos Rivera

Tambor: Luciano Keimari Arabanteva

Pegombirintsi harp: Roberto Mamareto Lopez

Monkey calls: Napoleón Oyeyoyeyo Soroni, Venancio Italiano Toribio

Flute: Venancio Italiano Toribio

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Biography | Melanie Dizon (Manila, Philippines)

Melanie is a Philippine-born interdisciplinary artist, designer and DJ from New York living in Peru since 2016, where she spent three formative years in the town of Puerto Maldonado, learning about the nature and Indigenous realities in the region of Madre de Dios. She has been the creative director for Xapiri Ground since 2019 where she leads visual communications, design, curation of exhibitions, and special projects as the “Crafting the Field series” where her love for music is channeled through creative possibilities that connect the Amazon, its communities, and sound artists. 

Check out the full Crafting the Field series on our bandcamp page.

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