NUTRINDO AS RAÍZES 2004
The Tracking Project's Brasilian Mentor Program

Last January we returned to the cerrado region of central Brazil, following the tracks of the onça (jaguar) as they led us into the second year of Nutrindo as Raízes, our Brazilian mentor program. There at Barra do Dia, a small farm one hour north of Brasília, we joined 37 Brazilian educators, artists, tribal leaders and community workers for a week of discussions, teachings and ceremonies that carried our Arts of Life mentor curriculum to a new level of achievement.

Following the first day's opening ceremonies, the rains began and they didn't stop until the last morning of the program. These incessant rains dominated our days and nights, sometimes drowing out the speakers, and forced us to go "inside" with our teachings of natural and cultural awareness. The highlights of this year's program were not the marvelous animal sightings of the past year. They were the revelations and insights received within each of the turtle's plates which represent the essential elements of our curriculum.

Each day our presentations, discussions and hands-on workshops followed what we feel to be the operant components of our programs. These key areas have been laid out on the plates of a turtle's back. They include: Thanksgiving, Traditional Tracking & Survival Skills, Nature Awareness, Peacemaking, Cultural Awareness, The Arts of Life, Personal Development, Community Education, Ceremony and Renewal. Within each area, we examine the resource materials available in the training manual, our designated mentors present their thoughts on the topic and then we open the floor for discussion and comments.

Our participants came from many different regions of Brazil- São Paulo, Brasília, Cuiabá, AltoFloresta - and included psychologists, biologists, architects, students, public servants, history professors, artists, photographers and musicians. One student, a psychologist, has traveled each year from Barcelona to take part in the program. The Indian people of this vast land were represented by two young women from the Bakairi nation (Mato Grosso region) and Fernando Luis, a cacíque from the Yawanawá people who live on the Rio Gregorio near Tarauacá in the state of Acre.

The team from North America included: Able West, long-time associate of our project; Solar Law and his wife Renata Cassis Law, our translators for the course; and John Stokes, Director. Funding was provided by the Aurora Foundation in Santa Fe.

The visit was coordinated by the members of Projeto Pegadas Brasil (PPB), the Brazilian branch of The Tracking Project. The young staff of PPB is dedicated to "harmonizing the human being with Nature, inspiring the conservation of life on Earth through traditional tracking skills, the revitalization of ancestral cultures and the Arts of Life." Members of the staff include: Edison Luís Guedes Neves, Bento Viana, Henrique Guedes, Renata Guedes Neves, intern Andreia Andrigueto and many other advisors and friends.

HISTORY OF OUR WORK IN BRAZIL

Our work in Brazil - from the creation of Projeto Pegadas, through seven years of annual trainings & leadership camps for Brazilian youth, additional training sessions for Brazilians in the United States and now, the final year of Nutrindo as Raízes - has followed a strategic plan developed through the collective vision of the Aurora Foundation, The Tracking Project and the members of Pegadas. The story of how this all came to be is worth relating.

Projeto Pegadas Brasil emerged as a flower of our original mentor program Nurturing the Roots (NTR) - which took place in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico in June of 1996, '97 and '98. Bento Viana, a young visual artist from Brasília, was one of 45 people who attended the first year of the training. Bento shared our vision of training young people to care for the earth.

In 1997 he sought and received permission to establish the work of The Tracking Project in Brazil, agreeing to follow our project's methodology, goals and objectives in a Brazilian setting. Together with Solar Law in Santa Fe and a team including Edison Luís Guedes Neves, Renata Guedes Neves and others, Bento set up an office in Brasília and began to work with young people.

Ladies of the Light, an evening Arts of Life presentation,
Nutrindo as Raízes,Brazil.

In October 1998 we were invited to Brasília to hold our first courses in South America. That year, we held a single tracking class for 50 people in the Chapada dos Veiadeiros north of Brasília, near the Macaco river. The camp was a tremendous success. The next year we established a second group of rastreadores (trackers) on the northeast coast of Ceará near Fortaleza and held a second course in Brasília. Then in 2000, we returned to Fortaleza and Brasília for a third round of courses.

In 2001, a new region was added to our network with a course in the Serra de Cantareira, outside of São Paulo. That same year, we "streamed" our teachings by bringing in a new intake of beginning students in Brasília, while creating a new set of leadership classes for our advanced students there. By the fourth year of the project, our main problem was how to hold enough courses and how to visit all the different centers we had established each time we visited the country.

In 2002, we met this challenge by visiting Brazil twice in the same year, thanks to the Aurora Foundation! The first visit we took part in a tracking camp on a farm in the Pantanal region southwest of Cuiabá and held a longer leadership camp for the advanced students in Brasília. Returning in October 2002, we visited São Paulo for a second year and took our second group of trainees in Brasília into their second year.

Throughout time, Bento, Edison Luís and the staff of PPB maintained a rigorous annual schedule of camps and school visits, bringing their work to the attention of thousands of young people. They set up a website, made a short movie about our work, documented their outings in photo and video and spread the word of natural awareness. Their work created second, third and fourth generation models of our programs in some of the most remote and impoverished communities in Brazil.

After six years of training and networking, it became obvious that the tracking camps had attracted some very bright young people. It was now time to join them together into a coherent group. Invitations were sent out and in Janaury 2003 we held the first year of Nutrindo as Raízes, the Brazilian version of Nurturing the Roots. Held on a remote farm on the borders of the states of Goiás. Minas Gerais and Bahia, the first program drew participants from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitibá, Cuiabá, Brasília and the Amazon, including artists, educators, architechts, community organizers and Indigenous leaders.

In October 2003 we returned to hold courses near Cuiabá and Brasília and in January 2004 we held the second year of Nutrindo as Raízes. In January 2005, we will complete the three year training, graduating somewhere between 35-40 educators. With the end of the mentor training, we will be looking to undertake further projects through our network in Brazil. There are already plans to develop a secondary mentor training in October 2005 for young trainees in NGOs around Brazil.

In the eight years of our Brazilian project, we have worked with more than 1.000 participants from all over the country. Many thousands more have been touched by the classes run throughout the year by the hard-working staff of Projeto Pegadas, whose tireless travels and remarkable stories about our work have generated a waiting list of young people anxious to experience the "legendary" Tracking Project.

Major funding for the start-up of Projeto Pegadas Brasil and for our visits since 1998 has been provided through the generosity and vision of the Aurora Foundation in Santa Fe. In Brazil, further assistance has been provided by o Fundaçao Boticário, the AVINA Foundation, Nature Conservancy do Brasil and other organizations.

Our work in Brasil continues to burn brightly, fueled by the inspiration and enthusiasm of the young rastreadores Brasileiros. At this time, we can think of no better work than training these young people to care for the beautiful gift that is Brazil. Special thanks to the Aurora Foundation, our mentors, staff and participants - Obrigado. With saudades for our many Brazilian hosts and friends, we look forward to more remarkable experiences with the natural world in Brazil and the final year of Nutrindo as Raízes.

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