New photos obtained by Survival International show uncontacted Indigenous people in never-seen-before detail. The Indigenous people are living in Brazil, near the Peruvian border, and are featured in the ‘Jungles’ episode of BBC1’s Human Planet.
The pictures were taken by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department, which has authorized Survival to use them as part of its campaign to protect their territory. They reveal a thriving, healthy community with baskets full of manioc and papaya fresh from their gardens.
The tribe’s survival is in serious jeopardy as an influx of illegal loggers invades the Peru side of the border. Brazilian authorities believe the influx of loggers is pushing isolated Indians from Peru into Brazil, and the two groups are likely to come into conflict.
Peru’s authorities have announced that they will work together with Brazil to stop loggers entering isolated Indigenous people’s territory along the two countries’ joint border.
This uncontacted tribe is likely to be descended from Indigenous people who escaped the atrocities of the rubber boom last century. For several decades they will have known about and have had access to metal goods, such as the knife and pan in the photo, acquired through inter-tribal trading networks.