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Florence Goupil

Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya, an Indigenous Peruvian biologist and National Geographic Explorer, walks with her dog at the Wayqecha Biological Station in the Andes near Cusco, Peru.

Defying Peruvian government protocols, the Shipibo-Konibo have organized illegal mourning and funerals during the pandemic to honor their dead as their tradition dictates. At the funeral of Milena Canayo, a Shipobo-Konibo women who died in July 2020 with symptoms of COVID-19, her 9 year-old daughter lights a candle before taking refuge at home. Shipibo-Konibo people live in the Amazon rainforest of Peru, but Milena could not be treated at the local hospital—Ronald Suarez, head of the organization Coshikox, says the health and welfare of Indigenous people is always the last to be considered.

A Shipibo man named Senencina overlooks a river in the Peruvian Amazon. The Shipibo-Conibo tribe includes about 20,000 people in Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia.

A Shipibo man named Senencina overlooks a river in the Peruvian Amazon. The Shipibo-Conibo tribe includes about 20,000 people in Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia.