Four Colombian indigenous children, discovered in the Amazon jungle 40 days after their plane crashed, survived eating seeds, roots and plants they knew were edible thanks to their upbringing, according to an indigenous organization.
“The survival of the children is a sign of the knowledge and relationship with the natural environment that is learned from the mother’s womb,” said the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia (OPIAC).
The local knowledge of indigenous adults, who were involved in the search along with Colombian troops, also played a role in recovering the children alive.
The four siblings, ages 13, 9 and 4, as well as a now 12-month-old baby, survived a minor plane crash on May 1 that killed the pilot, their mother and a third adult. The children’s family clung to the hope that the siblings’ familiarity with the jungle would help them.
The “children of the bush,” as their grandfather called them, survived eating yucca flour that was aboard the doomed plane and clearing aid packages dropped by search helicopters.
But they also ate seeds, fruits, roots and plants that they identified as edible through their upbringing in the Amazon, Luis Acosta of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) told AFP news agency.
Acosta, who took part in searches, said the children were imbued with “spiritual power”.
That’s a shared perception among Indigenous leaders, and Acosta noted that a guardian would be posted outside the military hospital where doctors nursed the children to “mentally guide” them.
“We have a special bond with nature,” Javier Betancourt, another ONIC leader, told AFP. “The world needs this kind of special relationship with nature, to favor those like the indigenous people who live and care for the jungle.”
During the search, soldiers worked side by side with native trackers for 20 days.
President Gustavo Petro praised what he called a “meeting of indigenous and military knowledge”, which he said showed respect for the jungle.
Army helicopters broadcast recordings of the children’s grandmother telling them in the native Huitoto language to stay in one place until rescuers reached them.
“It was President Petro who brought us together,” Acosta told local media, referring to soldiers and indigenous experts.
“In a first meeting eight days before our search began, the president told us to go with the military because the military couldn’t do it alone,” he added.
More than 80 volunteers from indigenous areas in the departments of Caqueta, Putumayo, Meta and Amazonas joined about 100 soldiers in what was dubbed “Operation Hope”.
It was an unusual joining of forces.
In many of Colombia’s indigenous areas, armed outlaw groups roam and easily coerce indigenous peoples, who protect their lands with rudimentary weapons. Relations between indigenous communities and the armed forces are also tense.
But in the Guaviare department, rescuers from different groups put aside their differences to work together.
While soldiers planned operational details, native seekers held rituals to communicate with jungle “spirits,” using mambe, a paste made from coca leaf and ash, as well as chirrinchi, a fermented drink.
Using machetes, rescuers cut down trees and marked them with spray paint to guide the children.
Indigenous medicinal knowledge was also used to adapt to the harsh jungle conditions, 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 belief that [the children] could be found,” Acosta said.
It all led to the discovery of the siblings by a native tracker in an area that had not yet been explored.