Apetina Schoolchildren Take Part in Primary Exams: Building the Future of Indigenous Children

Editor’s Note: In her role as communications and information coordinator for the Amazon Conservation Team Suriname, Karin Lachmising works with ACT’s indigenous colleagues to capture their stories and share the great work being done in Suriname’s remote indigenous villages.

This month, for the first time, seventeen children from the indigenous village of Apetina in southwest Suriname will participate in the primary school exams. I sat down with the man who made this all possible, headmaster Arnold Arupa, who came to Apetina six years ago to act as headmaster of the first primary school in the village. 

In early days, the missionaries held classes in reading and calculating, lessons that were given in the Wayana language. When Arnold started with a group of the best children in the first grade, his mission was to prepare them to finish the primary school curriculum. It was his goal to prepare them for the exams and he guided them for five years thoroughly. 

Although Dutch is the official language, the children found it easier to learn when the official school started as they already had done some basics in their own indigenous Wayana language. This made it easier for them to understand the different subjects such as calculating, spelling and grammar. The hardest subjects for the children were geography and history. Headmaster Arupa had to use all his creativity to bring the information closer to the children and to make them like it.

“It is not easy, when you’ve never been out of the village, to learn about things like the Caribbean, the islands, trucks, ships and roads,” shares headmaster Arupa. “But I am confident that this group is ready for their exams.”

When they finished the first grade, Arnold asked the Ministry of Education for permission to allow the best 20 children to skip a class, because they had done very well, and he guided them as the “exam team.”  The children on the team range in age from 12 to 19 years old.

“Now they are ready for it,” he says. “And I am very proud. Almost the whole group is still together; only three children left the group of 20.”

We have a beautiful building now with four teachers from town and one local teacher. I think these children can set an example that it is really possible to succeed at school. I asked Arnold: What they will do after they have succeeded?

“This is a difficult step for all of the children in the interior of Suriname,” Arnold responds. “For further education they have to go to town, there is no other possibility. Sometimes family takes them in, but most of them have to stay in boarding school, which is for most families not financially or socially manageable.”

For now, Arnold concentrates on the exams, the first step to the children’s futures. When the children were asked what they want to become in the future, they answered with a wide range of jobs, but all have a link with their own environment: a pilot, a nurse and most of them, a teacher. One of the children, when asked a few times, said with some hesitation but with an inner confident spirit that he wanted to be a doctor. 

“The grades so far have been the best of the interior,” says Arnold proudly. “So I am quite confident they have a good chance.”

It seems headmaster Arnold is even more nervous than the children.

“I know,” he says, with a big smile. “But I really want them all to succeed.  I’ve worked such a long time with these kids and I admire them for the effort they and their families at home took to keep on coming to school and learn in an environment which is so very different from what you learn in your schoolbooks.”

Karin Lachmising

Amazon Conservation Team, Suriname

Communication & Information Coordinator

Witness to the First United Assembly of Male and Female Healers of the Colombian Eastern Andean Amazon

To have witnessed a historic event of great importance to traditional medicine is an honor that can hardly go unnoticed in the life of a human being.

From March 20 to 23, 2011, in the community of Mocoa in the Colombian department of Putumayo, members of the Union of Indigenous Yagé Healers of the Colombian Amazon (UMIYAC) and the Women's Indigenous Medicine Association (ASOMI) assembled together for the first time. They held both concurrent and independent sessions to address issues of concern to both groups. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to observe. 

A primary point of concern for both groups was the misuse of their traditional medicine that is occurring in many places, as well as the ongoing irresponsible commercialization of their knowledge by both indigenous and non-indigenous persons.

The message that they wish to disseminate to the world is that the virtuous practice of traditional indigenous medicine must comply with the cultural rules and traditions in which it is fostered. This means, among other things, that it must be the elders, the recognized knowledge-keepers, who give consent to this practice; that their traditional medicine must be performed in appropriate settings, that is, cultural and environmental conditions that ensure the "cleansing" of space; that the origin of the plants employed must be known with certainty, so that they have not been exposed to pollution of any kind; and that the musical instruments and songs employed are those belonging to the local cultural tradition.

The healers stressed that the worthy producers of the “remedy" are those that are supported by and are rooted in their communities. In contrast, those who are engaged in the distribution of medicine in a city without being in real contact with their natural environment are considered charlatans and “knowledge-mongers” who endanger the lives of their patients as well as the good name of traditional medicine.

The healers’ reflections and communications reinforce the importance of protecting both their lands and their culture. To keep their medicine alive, it is necessary not only to ensure that their youth engage in the study of plants (through an apprenticeship program), but also to protect and restore the territory in which this medicine was born, and to ensure that the state and its institutions provide the means to make certain that the culture and territories are respected and possess the proper conditions for their survival in the future.

As I mentioned at the beginning, having witnessed this new stage in the growth of these organizations is an honor for which I thank the generosity of the shamans and mamas present at the meeting. I received their concerns and enjoyed their conversations as well as the kindness of their healing and medicine. Now, I have both a personal and institutional commitment to support efforts so that this medicine and ancestral knowledge may continue to bring well-being to humanity.

Jose Pablo Jaramillo 
Amazon Conservation Team Colombia

Improving Food Security and Economic Opportunities in the Amazon

On April 22, environmentalists around the world will celebrate Earth Day. Our indigenous partners in the Amazon celebrate their land and its preservation every day as they strive to maintain their cultures and the rainforests in which they live.

Over the last several months, our indigenous colleagues and ACT staff in Colombia have collaborated with more than one hundred community leaders to promote integrated sustainable development in the Alto Fragua Indi Wasi National Park in the northwestern Amazon. Through training workshops, ACT is encouraging the region's communities - including non-indigenous farmers - to share farming techniques that improve the planting and maintenance of family gardens, as well as pasturing livestock with a sustainable approach that has less impact on the forest.  

As part of our commitment to this important project, ACT Colombia recently delivered seeds, equipment and other materials used in the preparation of organic fertilizers to the communities for the planting  of 124 family gardens and 44 plant nurseries.

Additionally, in Suriname, ACT staff is helping the rainforest community of Kwamalasamutu (Kwah-mah-lah-sah-MOO-too) to develop an immunity-boosting tea for the market. ACT provided training in plant propagation and cultivation, food safety, marketing, business planning, bookkeeping, and project administration. We are happy to report that production facilities are being constructed, and a management plan is under development.

Through these ongoing sustainable development activities, ACT and our indigenous partners in the Amazon are working to ensure the preservation of one of the Earth's most sacred forests--one whose survival may determine how hospitable an Earth we leave for our children and their children. Here's to celebrating Earth Day every day!