Uncontacted Indians face annihilation
The Awá are one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Brazil. More than 60 Awá have no contact with outsiders.
Although most live in legally recognized reserves, the Awá are hemmed into ever smaller spaces as loggers, settlers and cattle ranchers invade their land and cut down their forest.
The Awá are a small tribe living in the Amazon state of Maranhão. They are one of only two nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes remaining in Brazil.
Their forest home has been opened up by industrial projects and cattle ranching. Many nomadic Awá died as they came in to contact with national society mainly from common diseases to which they had no resistance.
Some were killed in brutal massacres as ranchers cleared their land for cattle pasture.
Today about 355 Awá live in four communities. They still depend on the forest for everything.
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| Takwarentxia and his pet monkey, Juriti community, Brazil. © Fiona Watson/Survival |
Some are uncontacted, ranging from tiny family groups who are on the run, living in the last fragments of Maranhão’s rapidly dwindling rainforest outside legally recognized territories, to approximately 60 individuals living in the Araribóia reserve which is heavily invaded by illegal loggers.
The Awá are one of only two nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes left in Brazil but their forest is dwindling as settlers and cattle ranchers get ever closer.
In the 1970s huge iron ore deposits were discovered in the region. This led to the Great Carajás Programme, a development project funded by the EU and the World Bank which included building a mine and a railway.
The Awá and other indigenous peoples saw their lands opened up to unprecedented invasions by outsiders. The railway line linking the Carajás mine to the coast cut through their territory.
Today Awá lands are being targeted by loggers, who are bulldozing roads into their forests, and by settlers, who hunt the game they rely on, exposing the Indians to disease and violence.
There are now three large illegal settlements in the Awá Territory, all of which were built after the territory was officially recognised by the government in 1992.
Several large cattle ranches occupy significant tracts of Awá land and have already destroyed much forest.
A federal judge ruled in June 2009 that all invaders must leave the Awá territory within 180 days. However, some of the ranchers have appealed against the ruling which has been suspended, and illegal logging and invasions are increasing.
Satellite maps show that over 30% of the rainforest in one territory inhabited by the Awá has been destroyed.
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| An Awá girl from Juriti community, where most of the recently contacted Awá live, Brazil.
© Fiona Watson/Survival |
Survival is urging the Brazilian authorities to dismiss the appeals and to reinstate the judge’s ruling, to remove all invaders from Awá land and to put in place stringent measures to protect it.
If the Awá are to survive it is vital that their forest home remains intact and that they are not exposed to diseases transmitted by outsiders and to violence at their hands.
For many years Survival campaigned successfully for the official recognition of all the Awá territories.
Your support is vital if the Awá are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
