Global Courant
The children knew the jungle and the indigenous people who were looking for them implemented all their traditional knowledge to find them. The four brothers rescued after 40 days wandering through the Colombian Amazon survived without a doubt thanks to the native peoples.
For the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia (OPIAC), “the survival of children is a sample of knowledge and relationship with the natural environment of life, which is taught from the mother’s womb.”
After the plane crashed on May 1, in an accident that killed the children’s mother and two other adults, the family clung to hope: their knowledge of the jungle, its rules, dangers, and codes.
The “sons of the bush”, as their grandfather used to say, were able to survive by eating a little fariña (cassava flour) that was on board the crashed plane and rescuing some of the food dropped at random by Army helicopters.
But also consuming “seeds”, fruits, roots and plants that they had identified and knew were edible, Luis Acosta, national head of the indigenous guards of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), explained to AFP.
“Spiritual Strength”
“They are indigenous children and they know the jungle very well. They know what to eat and what not. They managed to survive thanks to that and their spiritual strength,” said Acosta, who participated in the search operations.
This theme of “spiritual strength” is recurring among the indigenous leaders who comment on the feat. Acosta promised to place a guard in front of the Bogota military hospital, where the children are being cared for, to accompany them “spiritually.”
“We have a particular connection with nature,” sums up Javier Betancourt, another ONIC leader, for AFP. “The world needs this particular relationship with nature, favoring those who, like the indigenous people, live in the jungle and take care of it.”
During the search, the military and indigenous peoples joined forces for about 20 days.
Indigenous people and soldiers worked together to search for the children. (Free Press Photo: AFP)
President Gustavo Petro praised this “meeting of indigenous and military knowledge” in favor of the “common good”, together with “respect for the jungle.”
The Army broadcast audio recordings from helicopters in which the children’s grandmother asked them in the Huitoto language not to move and warned them that they were looking for them.
“It was President Petro who helped us get together,” indigenous people and soldiers, Acosta told the local press.
“In a first meeting, eight days after the search began, the president told us that we had to go out together because the Army was not going to be able to do it alone,” he added.
winning duo
“We organize ourselves, we coordinate,” explained the ONIC leader. About 84 volunteers, members of the indigenous guards of the departments of Caquetá, Putumayo, Meta and Amazonas, then joined the hundred commandos of “Operation Hope”.
With a presence in several departments, these “indigenous guards”, armed only with sticks and colored handkerchiefs, guarantee the safety of the communities and the surveillance of the indigenous territories, which face or cohabit with numerous active armed groups in the country. His relations with the military are sometimes just as difficult.
In the Guaviare jungle, the duo worked. Every day they produced a joint report on the operations, while the natives performed their own rituals for the “spirits” of the jungle, using their traditional mambé (a powder made from coca leaves and ash) and chirrinchi, a fermented drink.
Using machetes and cans of spray paint, rescuers left marks or small “traps” (logs cut or strategically placed) here and there to guide the children.
Indigenous medicinal knowledge was also used to adapt to the difficult conditions of the jungle, treating scratches, splinters, insect bites, exhaustion and physical pain.
The indigenous people have “worked in the rain, in storms and in many difficult situations, but always with the hope and spiritual faith of being able to find them,” Acosta said.
And finally, an indigenous guard found the children, in an area not yet explored.
