Yesterday, we went on a trip to the Glasgow Museum Resource Centre for a trip titled ‘Whose Rainforest?’. We looked at different artefacts from the rainforest, like an authentic blow pipe, tague crafts in the shapes of toucans and lizards. We touched a netted hammock and traditional jewellery – which the tribal communities made and stained themselves with natural dyes from plants. They were really impressive.
We played a game where we had to identify five items that we would keep with us if we were stranded in the rainforest for 48hours. After some discussion, we chose;
water, mosquito repellent, a torch, a hammock and matches
We also debated about the theme – ‘Whose rainforest?’. We were divided into three groups; medics, business men and women, and tribal people. We each had to argue our points, and debate why we thought the rainforest belonged to us and that we should have control over its land. This was a very interesting discussion, and ultimately, we believed that the medics and tribal communities should work together as they both have moral and human needs at the centre of their priorities; developing cures for illnesses and disease from plants, using natural resources to provide essentials like shelter and food.
We had to play the game, find the parrot, which was well hidden in the Museum corridor, sitting on a shelf. We missed it, because we were distracted – and lost our dinner for the night!! Maybe us city kids aren’t made for the wild just yet…
