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The survival of children is a lesson from the Amazon for humanity

The survival of children is a lesson from the Amazon for humanity

More than a miracle, it was the result of knowledge and an ancient relationship with the jungle. This is how Alex Rufino, an indigenous Ticuna ethnic group and an expert in caring for the jungle, explained to RFI that the indigenous children have been rescued safely after spending 40 days alone in the bowels of the Amazon.

From his experience as an indigenous Ticuna, one of the many communities in the department of Amazonas, Alex Rufino, a professor on the Amazon at the National University of Colombia, explains to Radio France International that the children initially had the knowledge learned from their parents, the grandparents and everything they have observed in their short but valuable life experience.

“Here we learn from observation and also from practices in each of the spaces we go to, the chagra, the jungle itself, the river. All these activities gather the necessary elements to be able to live in the jungle. And of course, from little ones are also given some tools from the spiritual”.

RFI: From a foreign perspective and outside the Amazon, that is, it was thought during these 40 days that children were under the multiple threats that the jungle can constitute in the stereotype that those of us who do not live there have. Do you prefer to think that the children were vulnerable but protected by the jungle??

Yes that’s how it is. I think they somehow also felt that company. And they also felt the mom. Perhaps she, also from the spiritual, gives them the order to move forward. In the jungle, children and people cannot be still. People move instinctively to search for food and not be affected by thoughts of fear or fear. In the end, everything that exists there is an element that serves you, strengthens you and helps you spiritually, but also mentally, with the idea that you are not going to die, but that you are going to find the tools and that you have to take care of your body And the care of the body demands that you know about the plants, the barks, the leaves, the same paths, the tracks that the animals leave. All this gathering of knowledge is what ultimately helps them move forward and make decisions. And here I mean the older sister, who has the responsibility of also protecting her brothers. And every decision she makes is key for them to be able to resist during these days.

RFI: The older sister is just 13 years old. At that age, do you already have enough knowledge and relationship with the jungle to know what water you shouldn’t drink or how you should drink it, what food you should eat and what food you shouldn’t eat because it could harm you?

In us there is a connection from the very womb of the mother, we are learning what the mother is eating, at what moment, where she is. And of course, 13 years is a sufficient age where the child is already capable of walking in the jungle, going to collect fruits, picking what he needs, because we have to take only what is necessary. Many times, children can be silent, but they are learning everything so quickly. Therefore, this accompaniment of parents is very important.

RFI: How can a child know what water to drink or how to purify the water if he is not sure that it does not have some type of contamination that could harm them?

We learn to differentiate the colors of water. For example, the water from the wetlands where the salty ones are cannot be drunk because it has different elements that harm the body, and this has been taught since you are walking in the space of our jungle. The child is also instructed to collect certain leaves or certain elements that the plants that purify the water release. There are also streams where there is sand or less leaves in a state of decomposition. It is important to know that, in this case, because it is an area where it rains a lot, the leaves also accumulate certain water that can be drunk, and there are large leaves that have the function of accumulating water that is completely pure. That is the one that is also sought in case you get lost or are on the wrong path.

RFI: The rescuers say that the children carried a small bottle to pour out the water. That is to say, water is not being consumed all the time, nor in large quantities, and yet one survives.

What happens is that if you consume a lot of water it can also affect your body because they were walking a lot and they had to measure how far they progressed in the day. And that also depends on how far the animals you follow or the tracks you follow advance, and which track you follow or where you can’t go because the animals smell, the dangerous snakes smell.

RFI: So you can’t leave much of a physical trace of our scents, because obviously the predator is going to sniff it out. It seems that animals are allies for food guidance, right?

Yes, clearly the animals and, above all, when there are squirrel monkeys in the area, that is, monkeys that have a diet that is a little close to ours, even the rodents of that Amazonian area of ​​the country, well it is about following those steps, because finally those steps take you to a tree that has fruits and that’s where you can collect, you can climb and eat. And clearly large animals do not become a danger either because, although it is true from the outside they are seen as the most dangerous and that they can attack, in our thinking and in our feelings from the spiritual, they are the ones that protect their children the most. .

RFI: That is to say, that a large animal, instead of a threat, is more of a protector.

It is a protector against all other risks and the other risks can be the same people who are looking for you. For this reason, in this type of search, when there is ancestral and millennial knowledge of indigenous peoples, the spiritual accompaniment of a person who knows the place is always recommended. The process also requires healing of the place, you cannot go to a place like this simply by saying “we are leaving and entering this jungle”. Before there must be a dialogue, an agreement with these spirits, with these mothers who are there, who can be seen or not, it can be a tree, it can be the river itself, it can be the animals. I believe that this union of knowledge and institutionality and ancestral knowledge made the meeting possible, although not so fast, and that the children could resist and be there.

RFI: In other words, it was a success that the Army had undertaken the search together with the indigenous leaders or elders who also left in the advance of this search.

It was quite an important support. I think there is a lesson here and it is that our knowledge should not be ignored and there should always be that accompaniment in any task because in the end there is a strong connection. We, who are from the jungle, are also in a foreign space for us, even when we are in the jungle, and therefore we have to ask for a permit, talk to an “elder” so that he guides us and protects us. The body must be protected, it must be cured, it is said here and that was what was done in this operation. The bodies of Army personnel were cured. From different places in the Amazon, even from the country, these energies were sent to work together. And it really strikes me that one of the boys who participated in the Operation talked about the hug they gave each other at the end when they found the children. I think that this is what it is about: the embrace that the jungle itself has with those who searched and with the children.

RFI: The rescuers say that at a time when their search was overshadowed, they decided to resort to yagé. And in the second ceremony with yagé it works. How is this?

Well this works because there has to be a dialogue. And what the yagé does is allow a journey and a dialogue with these people who are there, I mean the owners of that space, so that the children are well. Perhaps, they asked those spirits to give them water, food, the element that they should use to continue the search, to have energy, to be able to find them and for the roads to open up. And it was with yagé, this sacred plant, which is the one used in this area of ​​the country.

RFI: The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has placed the Amazon jungle at the center of his policy and has called to save the Amazon where the population can only travel by plane and paying the most expensive prices in the country. That jungle where the plane carrying the children crashed not by chance, but because it was in poor condition and had already crashed, as private company aircraft usually crash there, leaving the passengers they are carrying burned. This is how they have been denounced, now that they have been given the floor, by the indigenous volunteers from the search team for the four little ones, Alex Rufino. Beyond the emotion that this episode arouses and that occupies the headlines around the world, what is glimpsed is the precariousness, abandonment and oblivion in which you, the indigenous communities of the Colombian Amazon survive.

Yes, yes, yes, clearly. I think that this is a reality that the government and the institutions are aware of. However, there have been no improvements. I travel a large part of that territory, and I know the precarious conditions in which the airports are, the conditions of the flights, in addition to the costs and that it is the only exit option because the rivers cannot be navigated due to the very far distances. But there is also a lack of institutional accompaniment rather than care, since this territory is quite complex where mining, armed conflict and displacement come together.

And despite being such an important territory for the world, so important to us, it is a territory that is beautiful for political discourse and sells. But I believe that the people are also important, the people who live there all their lives, we have not been there since now with this news, but we have been there for many years and we are going to stay there and they are going to plant us there because we spent this moment of life and we will always be there and there are our ancestors. That is why I believe that the speeches have to talk about this knowledge and accompany it to public policies. Hopefully this is a great lesson for us as humans.

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