Untold Story of 4 Kids' Remarkable 40-Day Jungle Survival, Lost in the Jungle. Something Big Is Missing From Media Coverage.
Since their rescue on June 9th, the story of four kids who spent 40 days
in the Colombian Amazon rainforest after a plane crash has captured the
attention of the entire world. In the flurry of news articles, a crucial
detail has been missed amid the admiration and surprise this story has
attracted. While rightly praising the children's resiliency and
resourcefulness, Western commentators frequently ignore or mock the
Indigenous lifeways that gave them the tools they needed to accomplish
such a feat. This oversight draws attention to the underappreciated
abilities and skills of Amazonian Indigenous children, which do not align
with widely held beliefs about "optimal child development" held by aid
organizations and child specialists.
Members of the Huitoto Indigenous group living in the Colombian Amazon
are Lesly, Soleiny, Tien, and Cristin Mucutuy, who are 13, 4, and 11
months old, respectively. Following the plane crash, they were in a
desperate situation after fleeing their home region to avoid being
enlisted by an armed group. However, this only scratches the surface of
the complex abilities that allowed them to survive. Many people were
fascinated by their factual ecological knowledge, such as what they ate or
how they protected themselves from predators. Indigenous knowledge is an
embodied orientation that lies between one's senses, surroundings, and own
flesh; it extends beyond explicit instruction and procedure
memorization.
To gain a better understanding of Amazonian Indigenous cultures, we must
call attention to this intangible knowledge. It entails having an embodied
moral perspective towards other people and being prepared to meet their
needs. Lesly showed this sensibility by taking care of her siblings
throughout their arduous ordeal. Lesly had frequently looked after babies
while her mother was at work, so her grandmother Mara Fátima Valencia
recognized her ability to do so. The role of changing diapers and
appropriately responding to a baby's cries was emphasized by Lesly's aunt,
Damari Mutucuy. Lesly's actions bring attention to the natural capacity
for caregiving possessed by Indigenous children from the Amazon, a total
frequently disregarded or undervalued in popular culture.
Children in indigenous communities in the Amazonia have a lot of freedom,
autonomy, and independence as they grow up. Even 3- and 4-year-olds could
be seen in Franks' childhood village in the Ecuadorian Amazon engaging in
independent activities like fishing, climbing trees for fruit, and using
machetes responsibly without adult supervision. This laissez-faire
approach, which has been observed in Indigenous communities throughout the
world, including the Amazon, is the result of a belief in children's
abilities and the idea that failure and risk are necessary components of
the learning process. This upbringing enables kids to grow up with a sense
of social responsibility and autonomy.
In these communities, children are also expected to help with household
duties like food gathering, dishwashing, clothes washing, and babysitting
younger siblings. Children's moral growth, social responsiveness, and
autonomy are all encouraged by such participation. However, a lot of
middle-class people in Western societies think that these tasks are
unnecessary or onerous for a child's development. Notably, UNICEF
considers household work that lasts longer than four hours per day to be
child labor. In contrast, Lesly's survival and the care of her siblings
during those 40 days were greatly aided by the young age at which
Amazonian Indigenous children learned to take care of themselves and
others.
Taking into account the diversity of abilities children from Amazonian
Indigenous communities possess challenges the dominant emphasis on
literacy and academic success in mainstream cultures. In Latin America,
where Indigenous children have long been stigmatized as being "behind"
their non-Indigenous peers and in need of "correction" or "civilization"
through formal education, this acknowledgment is especially important.
Possibly the words of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who described
Lesly and her brothers as "children of the jungle" who are now also "
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