About Us
We are an intercultural team of medicine practitioners and educators whose work is born out of the ancient Shipibo-Konibo practice of samá (or dieta). This practice has unfolded a continuous cultivation of our «koshi» -sense of aliveness, truth, and wholeness in ourselves-, within our universe or «nete«, hence the name «Koshi Nete».
Team
Macarena Arias
Macarena is a Peruvian plant medicine practitioner, artist, SE Therapist, Expressive Arts Facilitator and bridge keeper of the Shipibo-Konibo language. In 2016, she arrived to Ucayali to work with Shipibo communities through the NGO Alianza Arkana. Around the same time, she began learning the Shipibo language with Professor Pakan Meni and started her plant medicine studies with Onanya Manuela Mahua (Jakon Rate). In 2020, during a long-term samá, Macarena received inspiration to share her language abilities, create a musical project, and continue to develop in plant medicine. After concluding her samá, Macarena began partnering with Shipibo-Konibo teachers Pakan Meni and Xawan Rabi, and linguist Brian Best to share the language with the samataibo community. Together they created the Jakon Joi Language Education Initiative to teach the first group modules for beginners. In 2021, she met her partner, Wexa Metsa. In 2022 she joined him at Kushi Ayahuasca Retreat Center, later they launched Koshi Joi, an advanced Icaro Immersion module for plant medicine students. Today she continues to share Shipibo-Konibo language, medicine and is working on her own art projects.
Wexa Metsa
Wexa Metsa is a Shipibo curandero born in the community of Roaboya, Loreto. He began his apprenticeship with his grandfather at 13 years old and later trained with his great aunt, Maestra Olivia Arevalo. At the age of 18, he began singing in his native language and using his knowledge of medicinal plants following the ancient Shipibo tradition. Today he leads Kushi Ayahuasca Retreat Center together with Macarena Arias and shares his language and the wisdom of his ancestors with the world.
Collaborators
Professor Eli Sánchez (Pakan Meni) is a teacher and a leading expert on the Shipibo-Konibo language. He has worked on many language projects, including primary school textbooks, traditional storybooks, and official translations as a founding member of ARIAP. He offers Shipibo-Konibo language instruction through private lessons and Jakon Joi, as well as translation services.
Brian Best is a linguistic anthropologist and student of the Shipibo-Konibo language since 2003. He has a master's degree in Native American Languages and Linguistics and works with ARIAP to create an online Shipibo-Konibo dictionary and other language projects. He has also been a long-term student and facilitator of plant medicine under Manuela Mahua (Jakon Rate). He is a language educator through Jakon Joi.
Eva Melendez (Xawan Rabi) is a secondary education student at the National University of Ucayali (UNU), and artist with the Kené Néte collective. As winner of the Soi Noma contest in 2019, she became a representative of young Indigenous women, and is currently the vice-president of Alianza Arkana. She is a language educator through Jakon Joi.