The story
A few years ago, I was searching for educational resources for the Unit of Study I coordinated Peace of Mind: The Psychology of Peace at the University of Sydney. The Documentary The Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra arose as a golden treasure filled with history. I watched how the narrative of knowledge on Indigenous and rural wisdom encapsulated the complexity with which education and environmental degradation are rooted.
I invite you to pause, as a tool for Learning.
The first image is after the child (one of the orphans from the Rubber’s massacres) says his name in his language. He was indoctrinated and not allowed to express his way of seeing the world.
The second image is from one of the scientists in the film, an ethnobotanist. He was told by the Karamakate, the Amazon Shaman, why he carried so many things. He said: “These boxes contain all the knowledge I’ve gathered… I have to keep them, otherwise nobody will believe me”.
The third image is of the other scientist, a botanist, and the Karamakate, older. The words were when the younger Karamatare was teaching the orphan children from the Amazon their Knowledge.
The three images do not intend to speak about all the teachings that bring the amazing Documentary, which, among many, touches on the power of the Amazon and their people’s relation listening to Nature, but also the genocide on the Amazon for the Rubber extracted for the expansion of what was called one of the gifts from science, the bicycle.
Pausing to make space for how we know what we know.
Vivianna Rodriguez Carreon 