Hudson Wild is no longer busy hunting kangaroos with lifelong tribe friends or collecting insects in the jungles of Indonesia. Now, he focuses more on video production and strives not to spend all his time sitting on the couch at his family home in Florida.
In an interview with The Epoch Times in his hometown of Niceville, Florida, the 25-year-old Wild recounted the story of when he first arrived in the primitive highlands of Papua, Indonesia, at the age of 5 with his four brothers. Accessible only by helicopter, they grew up in a tribe with their missionary parents. His best friend was a Wano tribe member from an external indigenous family who was later introduced into the Wano tribe. They still keep in touch as cellphone signals now cover the Wano region, and Wild is fluent in the Wano language.
“We almost instinctively learned the Wano language with our friends, and we quickly mastered it as we interacted with them. Now we speak it fluently,” he said.
In addition to language, the Wano people taught the brothers survival skills as they grew older.
“They learned a lot from us, but I have to say we learned even more from them because we were immersed in that environment,” Wild said. He cited examples like navigating through the jungle barefoot, identifying animal tracks, and setting traps.
Since returning to the United States, they have been showcasing these unique experiences and skills to modern teenagers through film production and social media. The reality show “Off the Couch Into Creation” emits a primal and aspirational appeal, encouraging Americans to take risks no matter where they are.
“My brothers and I once set a challenge to see if we could embark on adventurous activities in the U.S. as well,” Wild said. “When we first got back, we would often lounge on the couch, and those thrilling adventures from before seemed impossible here.”
The brothers also created the “Trail Hacks” series, sharing their survival skills in episodes that are approximately four minutes long.
But these adventures now seem out of place, as they gained worldwide attention a few years ago when their parents first revealed their lives with the Wano people on the reality show “Growing Up Wild.”
Wild recalled the initial days at the age of six or seven, fondly remembering meeting the tribe, participating in community hunts, face painting with friends before large celebrations, encountering a witch doctor who found God and banished nightmares, and he even believes he scientifically identified a mysterious mountain dog.
In 2005, when the fair-skinned Wild brothers set foot in the primitive jungle from a helicopter, all eyes of the Wano people were on them. There was no verbal communication at the time, and the Wano people welcomed them with smiles and gestures. Wano women and tribe members warmly embraced the children.
“We carried our luggage and went to see the new house father built,” Wild said, adding that the house was round in Wano style but slightly larger, equipped with running water and basic electricity. “There were many eyes outside the window staring at us.”
So, the brothers sat on the front yard grass and bonded with the children of the tribe. They soon found that Wano children played games like “tag” and “hopscotch,” forming deep friendships.
As they grew older, they also engaged in adult activities. “I really enjoyed local hunts,” Wild said. He had personally caught game but admitted that he was not as skilled as some friends.
Their parents taught the children they could dress like their friends, appreciate the beauty of Wano culture, but their Christian faith had boundaries, and they couldn’t engage in activities deemed “sinful.” Wano children get their noses pierced around the age of 10 with colorful bird beaks. Most Wano people wear bird feather accessories, and men often grow their hair long and braid it, wrapping it in cloth on their backs. The Wild brothers followed suit.
During major festivals and celebrations, the Wild brothers, with their Wano friends, used pigments extracted from betel nuts to apply to their faces. “It’s more like a chewing gum,” Wild said. “It turns very red and pasty in the mouth.” To them, this was completely normal, “just preparing with friends,” he said.
However, they refused to partake in the Wano people’s soul worship; the Wild family came as missionaries to liberate the Wano people from the “cage of sin and fear.”
“They were fearful of the natural world,” Wild said. “They believed that the souls of each territory ruled everything—health, crop growth, hunting success—so every territory’s soul had to be appeased.”
He mentioned a local witch doctor who was “a cheerful guy” on the surface, looking happy and fun, but also had a very dark side and deep inner turmoil.
The former witch doctor, who converted to Christianity, told Wild that he hadn’t slept so soundly in a long time. Wild was amazed by the transformation of the entire tribe—they were no longer ruled by fear but connected by love for each other.
In addition to missionary work, Wild had his own interests during his teenage years spent in Indonesia.
“I enjoy hiking and exploring places where no one has been before,” he said. The Wano region is vast, living on the edge of undeveloped mountain jungles. There were even Wano legends about mysterious creatures that sparked young Wild’s imagination and led him on an adventure.
“This research lasted for about five years,” he said. “We tried to track a mysterious canine species living in the Wano highlands, which the locals called ‘mbakngge’ (pronounced: im-bah-n-gay).”
This creature was said to be extremely wild and ferocious, residing in mountains shrouded in clouds at an altitude of over 12,000 feet. The Wild brothers speculated that it could be a Tasmanian tiger (now considered extinct) or a New Guinea singing dog.
“We never managed to capture a photo of it. I had a brief encounter with it during a nighttime hunt,” Wild said. “Based on the tracks and footprints we found, we believe it was a New Guinea singing dog.”
Today, Wild and his brothers continue their adventurous activities, collaborating with “Trail Life USA” to produce videos with a “Crocodile Hunter” style but with a stronger focus on safety. They have embarked on a professional career in the reality show domain through the Angel Studios platform.
The original article, “Back in US, Christian Brothers Raised in Jungles of Indonesia Share Survival Skills Learned From Indigenous Tribe,” was published on the English Epoch Times website.