Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë, born in 1971, is a Yanomami artist residing in Pori Pori, a Yanomami community in the Upper Orinoco near Mahekoto-Teri, Venezuela. Since the 1990s Sheroana has focused his work on rescuing the oral memory of his people, his cosmogony and ancestral traditions, starting with the production of handmade paper and books made with his community.

Laura Anderson Barbata, born in 1958 in Mexico City, Mexico, educated Hakihiiwe about handmade paper, elaborated with fibers from the Alto Orinoco area. In 1992 Hakihiiwe initiated the Yanomami Owë Mamotima project (El arte yanomami de reproducir papel), which led him to create several publications in a collective, collaborating with Laura Anderson Barbata.

In 2010 and 2011, Hakihiiwe was a visiting artist to the Center for Book and Paper Arts where a series of prints depicting the animistic cosmos of the Yanoamami people, the first documented Yanomami creation story in a limited edition,and studio production techniques for editioned paper prints were created and relationships forged with Venezuelan paper artists. His work in this collection includes artworks depicting Yanomami cultural symbols and creation stories.

Laura Anderson Barbata, in early 2010 served as a visiting artist whose retrospective exhibition was held at the Center entitled Among Tender Roots. The centerpiece of the exhibition was her Yanomami Owë Mamotima project. Founded in 1992, the project established a permanent hand papermaking facility in the Yanomami community of Platanal, Venezuela. Their first editioned publication, Shapono (meaning a communal house) transcribes a traditional creation myth and tells the story of the community’s first shapono.

Barbata's other work represented in this sub-series relates to Julia Pastrana (1834-1860) who had been born in Mexico with a condition that caused her body and face to be covered with thick hair. She created an edition on the life of Mexican-born circus performer, Julia Pastrana, Barbata’s work with Pastrana includes a long-term interdisciplinary project to repatriate Pastrana back to her home country of Mexico from Norway where she died in 1860. The burial the ceremony was held February 12, 2013 in Sinaloa de Leyva, Mexico.

Luis Romero, born in 1967 in Caracas, Venezuela is a visual artist, curator, and editor who lives and works in Caracas and who supports the work of Hakihiiwe. Romero has exhibited work in his native Venezuela and internationally; his work in this collection includes pieces created at the Center.