Bonding with the villagers through laughter and rituals for Tribes, Predators & Me
Rachael Kinley
Producer and series director
Spending time with the Waorani tribe in Ecuador for Tribes, Predators & Me has had a real impact on my life – their spirit is truly engaging.
I have filmed with many indigenous communities around the world. However, the experiences of being with the Waorani were some of my favourites. I was out in Ecuador for seven weeks in total, setting up the filming, directing the shoot and carrying out the translations afterwards and during this time we became close.
Some of the women in the Waorani tribe have lost loved ones to the anacondas that live nearby
They are great people. Kind, passionate and ultimately hilarious. But, it’s when the jokes stop that you know something serious is going on. One evening early on in the filming, the jaguar shaman (the group’s spiritual leader), Kemperi, said that I was filled with darkness. This needed to be sorted.
A cleansing ceremony followed which involved him spitting on my face and rubbing me with his sweat and some giant nettles. Half way through, he spat so hard that his false teeth fell on to my head. Despite my giggles, he didn’t laugh. This was real business.
The rest of the crew were also then cleansed by Kemperi too – whether they had any darkness in them or not. Unfortunately this meant that we all came up in giant welts as a histamine reaction to the nettles. Not ideal in a tropical climate…
Kemperi, 75, goes into trances to become possessed by a jaguar
The crew go through a lot of what presenter Gordon Buchanan experiences on screen, but sometimes he’s all on his own. When we were out filming the peccary hunt in Bameno, we couldn’t keep up with all our large cameras and sound gear.
So whilst we were left behind, lost in the forest, Gordon ran after the men who sped off and came back with a prized wild peccary kill. It takes incredible speed and agility to hunt in that kind of terrain, and on that rain-drenched afternoon we saw for ourselves that everything that the men bring back is hard won.
Gordon loses the tribe during a hunt and finds himself alone
I became a vegetarian when I was 13 and it’s only on special occasions when this slips. As they passed around the peccary skull to suck the juice out of, and handed us each a portion of peccary testicles to chew on, this became one of those special occasions!
The Waorani are incredibly accommodating, so I didn't want to cause any offence or confusion by refusing to share their food. However, it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience... They were charred all over, with a very peculiar texture; almost like warm jelly beans set into a rigid blancmange casing.
Gordon tries out 'choice' cuts of peccary to bond with the tribe
And there were plenty more special occasions that followed as we embraced the Waorani traditions, at one point I found myself dining on a spider monkey's arm. It was a particularly impactful moment.
Having spent time with several indigenous communities, I can say that I’ve eaten more monkeys than I have meatballs and now after being with the Waorani I’ve eaten more bollocks than I have burgers. I’m just not so sure I can call myself a vegetarian any more…
Rachael Kinley is the producer and series director Tribes, Predators & Me.
Tribes, Predators & Me starts on Sunday, 20 March at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.
Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.