‘Nothing inevitable’ about the annihilation of uncontacted Amazon tribe, says advocates amid fears for their safety

THERE is growing fears that one of the world’s last remaining uncontacted tribes could be killed off as we fight for their protection.

An uncontacted Yanomami tribe in Brazilian Amazon are photographed by a plane flying overhead. Picture: Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

THERE is growing fears that one of the world’s last remaining uncontacted tribes could face a swift demise as the outside world continues to encroach on their environment.

Images taken earlier in the year and shared widely online in November have prompted calls for the tribe which lives in the Brazilian rainforest on the border with Venezuela to be safeguarded against external threats.

Known as the Moxihatetema tribe, the group has consistently spurned contact with the outside world and its believed the group even keeps to themselves among the other indigenous communities in the area known as the Yanomami — a collection of about 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200 to 250 villages in the region of the Amazon rainforest.

Like other Yanomami communities in the Amazon, the Moxihatetema peoples have been steadily encroached upon by illegal gold miners who are blamed for introducing new diseases and polluting the rivers and forest.

The tribe was spotted by authorities four years ago in a makeshift village that has since disappeared which led to fears over their fate. But the new photos captured by officials from Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency prove they are alive and well.

“It’s incredible that they appear to be doing so well,” said Guilherme Gnipper a government official who took the photos during a surveillance flight over the reserve ahead of a joint operation with army troops and police to clear out thousands of illegal wildcat gold miners.

Despite being surrounded by illegal mining groups, the indigenous tribe is remarkably traditional, appearing to have no industrialised possessions.

“We saw no manufactured products whatsoever. Nothing made of metal. They are living well in complete isolation. It was like time travel,” he said.

There are still thousand of people in the Amazon that have not been contacted by the outside world. Picture: Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

Illegal gold miners have been a major problem in the Amazon. Earlier this year the Peru government declared an emergency because of mercury contamination caused by wildcat gold mining in the Amazon.

The illegal miners represent one of the most pressing threats to the uncontacted peoples of the rainforest.

Fiona Watson is the Campaigns Director at Survival International, a London-based human rights body that is dedicated to protecting those that remain largely cut off from the outside world.

“Not very long ago, many denied the existence of uncontacted tribes and claimed they could invade their land with impunity,” she told news.com.au.

“We give tribal peoples with experience of contact a platform to speak to the world, and raise awareness of this urgent and horrific humanitarian crisis.”

The organisation ran a campaign in 2014 which led to the expulsion of hundreds of invaders from the territory of the Awá tribe in the Amazon, an endangered group with about 350 members, some of whom have had no contact with the outside world. This year the group says its advocacy work helped lead the Brazilian government to sign a decree to protect the land of the uncontacted nomadic Kawahiva tribe from loggers and miners.

Despite the rapid rise of globalisation in recent decades there are still plenty of tribal communities that remain perfectly insular, according to Ms Watson.

“We know that there are around 100 uncontacted tribes around the world. Most of them are in the Amazon, but there are others elsewhere in South America, and in Asia,” she said.

She is far from the only one to raise concerns over the fate of the recently photographed tribe.

An indigenous leader from the Yanomami peoples with first hand experience of the devastation that can be brought by contact with outside groups believes the tribe could be in imminent danger.

“I am very concerned about my brothers, the Moxihatetema,” Davi Kopenawa, a tribal shaman and president of the Hutukara Yanomami Association told National Geographic.

“I’m afraid the miners are going to seek out the village and kill everyone.”

A bird’s eye view of the tribe’s yano (communal house) in the Brazilian Amazon. Picture: Guilherme Gnipper Trevisan/Hutukara

Mr Kopenawa was orphaned as a child when his parents died in a measles epidemic, caused by illegal gold miners. As such he has a particularly bleak outlook when it comes to the outside world venturing into indigenous territories.

But his warnings are not without warrant.

“His comments aren’t unreasonable, considering (his) experience,” Ms Watson said.

“We would add simply that there is nothing inevitable about the annihilation of uncontacted tribes. Where their lands are protected, they thrive.”

It’s certainly true that their way of life can be preserved, but it will take a commitment from the Brazilian, and other regional government, to ensure the continued protection of the lands.

However that’s easier said than done. The department of the government that is responsible for ensuring the protection of indigenous communities in the Amazon, the National Indian Foundation known by its acronym FUNAI, is facing significant budget cuts.

Meanwhile the new government that came to power a few months ago is less sympathetic to indigenous rights.

“But that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to campaign for them, or that we’ve given up hope that the Brazilian authorities will maintain and expand land protection,” Ms Watson said.

“There is nothing inevitable about the annihilation of uncontacted tribes. Where their lands are protected, they thrive.”