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| Awá-Guajá girl, Maranhão, Brazil. June 1992
© 1992 Fiona Watson/Survival |
Triumph for Brazil's last hunter-gatherers after 20-year Survival
campaign
Brazil's last hunter-gatherer Indian tribe face the future with more
confidence this week, after the demarcation – mapping out and marking on the
ground – of the Awá Indians' land was completed. This legal recognition of their
territory, ordered by a judge, was the main objective of a 20-year Survival
campaign.
Much of the Awá's rainforest has been invaded by ranchers, loggers and
settlers, who killed many Indians. Only 300 Awá remain: about 60 still live
uncontacted in small nomadic groups. The EU- and World Bank-funded Carajás
industrial project was responsible for much of the devastation.
On Wednesday 12 March Survival will hand in a petition of over 40,000
signatures to the Brazilian authorities urging the government to implement a
long term programme to protect the Awá area – particularly the uncontacted
Indians – and to ensure that the illegal ranchers and settlers are permanently
removed.
To'o, an Awá leader, explains why preserving the forest is so crucial:
'We live in the depths of the forest and we are getting cornered as the
whites close in on us. Without the forest we are nobody and we have no way of
surviving. Without the forest we'll be gone, we'll be extinct.'
Photos and footage available. For more information contact Fiona Watson on
(+44) (0)20 7687 8730 or email fw@survival-international.org
See How you can Help the Awá.
