4 Thinking Minds

Natalia Viana

“People feel an enormous sense of freedom in the Rainforest.  It frees their bodies and their imagination as well”, explains educator Renata Meirelles.  And she knows what she’s talking about; for the past six years, she’s been carrying out pioneering research into the playful aspects of Amazonian culture, studying and documenting local children’s games.

It all began in 1999, when she visited the region as a tourist.  Always on the look out for new aspects of Brasilian child-centred culture, she was fascinated by what she saw.  “Amazonian culture is very rich, very playful; everyone likes playing, singing and laughing.  I began to understand that the forest has a special quality that brings out poetry, imagination – and games”.  Renata discovered that amongst the little wooden houses on stilts, constructed by hand by the locals themselves, children were playing games involving clapping and string, just like our grandparents must have done years ago. 

Ever since, Renata has gone back as often as possible to visit over 15 communities and set up Project BIRA – which stands for “Children’s Games from the Amazon Region”.  Together with documentary filmmaker David Reeks, she learns and films the way these Indigenous and self-sustained river-dwelling communities play.  “Some of them are very isolated.  The locals fish or hunt their own food, and to go anywhere, like school or to the city to buy basic products, they have to travel by boat”, David observes. 
    
Of course this way of life has a big effect on the way the local children play.  After all, the sense of time you have in the rainforest is very different to that of a big city.  There’s no set time for games, and the rainforest is a bit like a giant playground.  “When these children want a toy, they have to make it themselves, because there are no plastic or remote control cars.  So they go into the forest and look for the right kind of wood or seed they need, then they make their toy and only afterwards do they actually play with it.  Playing with the toy is only part of the fun”, Renata concludes.       

She saw kids making little boats out of wood, blowpipes out of bamboo and dolls out of the branches of açaí trees;  “In the rainforest, it’s a lot more important to know how to make things than to actually have them.  In order to play, you just need your body.  It’s really important to know how to climb a tree, cut bamboo or swim in the river”. 

But what really drew the researchers’ attention were the spinning tops.  David had seen wooden spinning tops before, even though he was more familiar with the plastic ones used in his country.  “Some little boys would make a spinning top in just 25 minutes, using enormous knives to cut the trees.  And when they started to play, I was just speechless.  They’d grab the spinning top in mid-air and make it spin up their arms towards their necks”.  That’s what you get when you live in a culture that devotes a lot of time to playing. 

Today, the duo have a vast archive of photos, hours of video footage, interviews and, above all, friendships.  They’ve produced two prize-winning short films and are now in the final stages of producing a book and a film on their experiences.   

What’s more, they’re spreading the richness of this culture through workshops both in Brasil and abroad, introducing other children to the reality of life in the Amazon.  “The most important part of our work is connecting children around the world” explains Renata, “children living in Washington DC, for example, love seeing the enormous freedom that children living in the Amazon have”.  In this way, bit by bit, the pair are doing their part, showing the world and promoting the preservation of the infinite riches of the Amazon. 

Site: www.projetobira.com/en