Among the adornments used by the Iskonawa are painted body designs, necklaces, crowns, nose rings, among others. They are made with materials extracted from the forest, as well as from hunted animals.
Body designs were an important part of the Iskonawa people's celebrations and feasts, where they gathered with other familiar groups. These designs did not distinguish between men and women. Achiote is used to paint designs on the face, while Huito is used for body designs.
Some records suggest that the body designs were associated with two names: Shiwa and Hena, the former refers to the Shiwa worm, and is characterized by designs on its body, while the latter has few references, it is only known that the design alludes to fire (Rodriguez, 2020).
Body painting among the Iskonawa, according to Neyra Perez, was represented by animals, and they did this before going hunting:
“They painted themselves on their body when they went to hunt the sachavaca and monkey, sometimes on their face they also painted themselves (...) they painted themselves on their body so that the sachavaca would not see them and to protect themselves from other animals that are poisonous. They painted themselves with achiote”.
The use of achiote on the face also had other purposes, for example, when they went out hunting: they served to scare away the spirits or jaguars in the bush, as they could mistake the achiote for blood.
Feather crowns were used by men at festivals or large celebrations. They were made of vegetable fibres obtained from tree barsk, and they also had yellow feathers from birds such as the Paucar. These feathers were placed at the back of the crown.
The use of crowns also differentiated the status of the people, as Felix Ochavano tells us:
‘My grandfather used to tell me, in their social parties they were organised, there was the group of single people, those who were married, their way of dressing was different, including the way they wore the crowns, they had here on, those who had their families. ’
The use of crowns among indigenous peoples can have different meanings and purposes, depending on the culture and community to which they belong.
The chope is a necklace that Iskonawa women used to wear. Long in size, made of shell fragments. This necklace was wrapped several times around the neck and fell on the chest as an ornament.
Nobo is a necklace that men used to wear, made of shell fragments that were shorter, wrapped around the neck only once. The pieces of shells were arranged closely together. Teweti, a necklace made of fragments of armadillo shell or teeth of hunted animals.
The Rehpi or Nariguera in Iskonawa language are shell nose adornments worn by both men and women, with the only difference being that women wore it in a triangular shape, while men wore it in an ‘inverted canoe’ shape (Rodriguez, 2020). Another ornament used by Iskonawa men was the Rome, sticks made from the stems of tobacco plants, which were placed next to both nostrils.
