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.
Some are uncontacted, ranging from tiny family groups living in the last fragments of Maranhão’s rapidly dwindling rainforest outside legally recognized territories, to approximately 60 individuals living in the Araribóia reserve.
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.
Today Awá lands are being targetted 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.
Several large cattle ranches occupy significant tracts of Awá land and have already destroyed much forest.
A federal judge, Judge Madeira, 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.
Survival is urging the Brazilian authorities to dismiss the appeals and to reinstate Judge Madeira’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.
