Maestro Kestembetsa Vision and mission
Our goal is to protect these lands and the ancient vegetal knowledge they contain, preserving and sharing them with future generations of Maestros and Maestras. It is Maestro Kestembetsa’s wish that this knowledge be spread across the globe, helping to heal and awaken the earth and her children, utilizing the technology and ritual of traditional Shipibo healing and learning diets.
About the center
In Shipibo, the word Ishmin means “Condor,” an important bird in Shipibo cosmology, a messenger soaring higher than any other animal, connecting heaven to earth.
Ishmin Center is located deep in the Amazon rainforest, two hours from the city of Pucallpa in Eastern Peru. The Ucayali region is renowned for it’s dedicated Shipibo healers and is home to the Arevalo lineage. The jungle land Ishmin is located on has historical significance to the Arevalos, sacred to their ancestors for it’s rich spiritual energy and powerful plant spirit teachers.
ABOUT MAESTRA HILDA AREVALO
Maestro Chaman & Manager of Ishmin Center
Hilda Arevalo Rojas' spiritual journey started through her family’s deep roots in traditional Amazonian medicine and culture. Born in 1975 in a very small community of Native Shipibo people on the regional borders or Loreto and Ucaly. She came into a family of generational spiritual healers, and she continues to carry and preserve the special traditions and spiritual knowledge of her people.
Hilda’s journey is greatly inspired by her father, Maestro Kestembetsa and her grandparents.
As a child, Hilda would accompany her Grandmother Maria in helping treat people in their communities using plant medicine. Many of the treatments that Hilda uses now were learned by working with her family and seeing firsthand the difference she was able to make in people's lives. Hilda expresses how grateful and happy she is to be a part of this passed down medicine that is able to really help people and achieve great results.
Having spent the first part of her life in a small Shipibo community, and only speaking Shipibo, it was difficult moving from her community and going to school where her classmates spoke Spanish. Though little by little, Hilda learned and was able to integrate into her new life while holding onto her familial traditions.
As a young adult, Hilda began starting a family while attending school to study teaching.
Hilda studied at a bilingual Institute that taught and shared the many diverse cultures of Indigenous Amazonian peoples. As a member of the Shipibo people, she was eager to share her culture and language with people from other tribal communities. Hilda speaks fondly of the 'culture days' that the institute held, where she would dress in her Shipiba clothing, and paint her hands and body. These days were an exchange of culture, where they would learn each other's languages, dress, and culture. And as students who have deep roots in the Amazon, they united in preserving each other's cultures.
Hilda’s journey is greatly inspired by her father, Maestro Kestembetsa and her grandparents.
As a child, Hilda would accompany her Grandmother Maria in helping treat people in their communities using plant medicine. Many of the treatments that Hilda uses now were learned by working with her family and seeing firsthand the difference she was able to make in people's lives. Hilda expresses how grateful and happy she is to be a part of this passed down medicine that is able to really help people and achieve great results.
Having spent the first part of her life in a small Shipibo community, and only speaking Shipibo, it was difficult moving from her community and going to school where her classmates spoke Spanish. Though little by little, Hilda learned and was able to integrate into her new life while holding onto her familial traditions.
As a young adult, Hilda began starting a family while attending school to study teaching.
Hilda studied at a bilingual Institute that taught and shared the many diverse cultures of Indigenous Amazonian peoples. As a member of the Shipibo people, she was eager to share her culture and language with people from other tribal communities. Hilda speaks fondly of the 'culture days' that the institute held, where she would dress in her Shipiba clothing, and paint her hands and body. These days were an exchange of culture, where they would learn each other's languages, dress, and culture. And as students who have deep roots in the Amazon, they united in preserving each other's cultures.
Hilda has always been in the fight for protecting. Protecting her family's traditions and culture so that the next generation may carry and protect it as well.
After managing her family's different retreat centers in the past, Hilda continues the work by managing and living at the Ishmin Center in Peru. She began plant dieting in 2009 and continues her path for plant knowledge and spiritual healing. Hilda has been working full time as a Maestra spiritual guide in sharing her ancestral plant knowledge with others.
A speciality of Hildas is her healing work with roses and flowers. Often, Shipibo Shamans never use treatments with roses. However, Hilda feels a special connection with these powerful plants. Especially roses as they have the unique power to uplift people's emotions, and to release them from negative or confusing thoughts. People with self-doubt or anger can benefit from the purifying qualities of rose and flower baths. Hilda feels a special connection with these plants through the support of the Divine Mother and is able to transmit these vitalizing properties through her medicine work.
Hilda Arevalo Roja has 7 children and works with her Father, Maestro Kestembetsa. She supports the protection of Indigenous peoples culture and their environment, and she continues this fight for the sake of her people and way of life. She enjoys spending her free time with her family, traveling and enjoying what this beautiful world has to offer.
After managing her family's different retreat centers in the past, Hilda continues the work by managing and living at the Ishmin Center in Peru. She began plant dieting in 2009 and continues her path for plant knowledge and spiritual healing. Hilda has been working full time as a Maestra spiritual guide in sharing her ancestral plant knowledge with others.
A speciality of Hildas is her healing work with roses and flowers. Often, Shipibo Shamans never use treatments with roses. However, Hilda feels a special connection with these powerful plants. Especially roses as they have the unique power to uplift people's emotions, and to release them from negative or confusing thoughts. People with self-doubt or anger can benefit from the purifying qualities of rose and flower baths. Hilda feels a special connection with these plants through the support of the Divine Mother and is able to transmit these vitalizing properties through her medicine work.
Hilda Arevalo Roja has 7 children and works with her Father, Maestro Kestembetsa. She supports the protection of Indigenous peoples culture and their environment, and she continues this fight for the sake of her people and way of life. She enjoys spending her free time with her family, traveling and enjoying what this beautiful world has to offer.
Location
Located 1.5 hours south from the Pucallpa airport