PURE Energies Learns About Sustainability And True Independence From The Kayapo Tribe

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This post is brought to you by PURE Energies. Please note that as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

Children are amazing, aren’t they! So often times they seem to have an endless supply of natural energy. Reflecting back to when I was young, all of the kids in the neighborhood played outside as often as possible. We couldn’t wait to get out there. We didn’t want to stay inside, we wanted to be outside playing. There were no video games back then. There weren’t even tons of actual toys. We made do with what we had and we took care of what we had. What we didn’t have we made up or did without. We told stories. We played in our yards and in the woods around our neighborhood. Our entire neighborhood was just one big community, with different yards and homes serving for different purposes – drinks, snacks, pool, bathroom, treefort, and so on. We actively lived our lives. Heck, most days you didn’t even need a nap to recharge! In a sense we were self-sustainable.

The indigenous tribe known as the Kayapo people protect one of the largest regions of Amazon rainforest in the world. The territory spans 10.5 million hectares (almost bigger than 50% of all countries in the world). Now that’s a big community! Since the 1950s, the Kayapo have successfully battled waves of squatters, loggers, miners,ranchers and government officials to maintain their land and way of life. You would imagine that the size of a group protecting a community that big would have to be enormous. It isn’t. It’s a few thousand people strong.

The Kayapo live a simple and sustainable lifestyle, living in large family groups in villages. A large part of the tribe’s culture and lifestyle is ceremonial, including dance rituals, singing, chanting and other ceremonies. Storytelling is also very important, as it serves not only to entertain but also to pass on tales from the past, and preserve identity. Members were unclothed for a very long time, in recent years they have taken to wearing some Western clothing. Body paint is an art form and a tradition, and designs are often linked to ritual ceremonies. Learning how to prepare body paint is an early lesson for Kayapo girls. The Kayapo also make beautiful beaded necklaces, often in brilliant blues or yellows. The colored feathers of Amazon birds are used to headdresses, and shells and stones used to make bracelets and earrings. Hunting, fishing, growing vegetables, and building and using canoes are amongst the traditional skills that the young Kayapo learn. The Kayapo children also receive formal education in village schools. The main goal for children is for them to become a contributing member of the tightly-knit tribe.

No big decisions to make on what to eat at the grocery store or a restaurant, the tribe eats food that they grow or hunt and kill. Fish is a main source of protein, they also hunt animals including monkey and turtle. They grow vegetables, harvest wild fruits and Brazil nuts. Knowing this it makes sense that the Kayapo are skilled hunters, learning how to hunt and use knives while children. Transportation? Of course! By canoe. Kayapo trek for days or weeks at a time, using either traditional dug-out canoes or newer motorized aluminum canoes for the longer distances. Speaking of water, it’s one of the major forms of play for the tribe. Kayapo children love to swim in the many rivers located within their territory, with children as young as two swimming on their own.

Sustainability is an important lifestyle characteristic. PURE Energies, a leading energy advisor, knows this. PURE Energies recently embarked on a journey to discover what independence,leadership and sustainability mean to the rainforest and the Kayapo. Not long ago a small team lead by the International Conservation Fund of Canada started on their way to the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. The team includes PURE Energies CEO Zbigniew Barwicz. For the duration of their stay the team will be living alongside the Kayapo, participating in their daily life and exploring the Amazon. That is an amazing experience, considering most people have not seen this part of the world! The team didn’t go empty handed, part of what they brought along is solar light for each household.

The team will be returning with footage and photographs of the largest piece of protected rainforest in the world, and hopefully a greater understanding of how it is such a small group does such an amazing job protecting such an enormous piece of land from all sorts of things. For PURE, independence means giving homeowners the decision to take control of their energy bill and to make their own choices. Through this trip, PURE will learn the truest form of independence and convey those learnings to the homeowners of America. I encourage your to follow their journey to witness never-before seen footage of this amazing tribe here.