In 2012, 1200 indigenous people were attacked and 60 were killed by loggers. As criminal loggers keep gaining ground with impunity, survivors have no other choice but to adapt by hiding, hunting only during nighttime, beware of dogs and shootings… Within a few years, around 20% of the Awás have already disappeared. No forest means no food, no resources, no habitat. The forest which they depend upon to survive is shrinking. The Awá tribe is up against the illegal logging industry which is reported to weigh around $15 billion annually and to have strong ties to organized crime. The Brazilian government, reluctant to engage against the powerful agricultural lobby, is doing very little to stop the industry. Chasing out their inhabitants – violently, if necessary. Despite several protective international treaties, these territories have been illegally exploited by electricity, oil and logging giants over the past 40 years. This film investigates the political and financial interests that are at stake in what some anthropologists call “modern genocide”. According to Survival, suicide rates among isolated people are soaring following contact with modern men. “Survival” – a NGO defending the right of isolated people to their way of life – is campaigning for them. The Awás who number around 450 are among the last hunter-gatherers in the world. We won’t give up until we all have a world where the Awá – and all tribal peoples – are respected and their human rights protected, said Stephen Corry.The Awá tribe of Brazil is facing slow and inevitable destruction as those who want their forest close in around them. The Awá deserve the right to live as they choose, on their own land, without the threat of violence or encroachment from the outside world. Survival is now urging the Brazilian authorities to put in place a long-term solution to stop the invaders from returning, and to guarantee the safety of the tribe. The operation was completed in April 2014, whereby the Awá were presented with an ‘Evictions Completion Document’. Hundreds of soldiers, police and government agents flooded the Awá’s territory, locating and destroying sawmills and logging camps and expelling invaders, who had been given 40 days’ notice to leave and had been offered compensation. In an unprecedented success the campaign incited the eviction of all non-Indian invaders from the Awá’s land by the Brazilian government. Articles appeared in the media on both sides of the Atlantic and dozens of celebrities pledged their support, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and actor Colin Firth.Ī host of 57, 000 messages, from 38 countries, showered down upon the new Brazilian Minister of Justice and campaigners also wrote to Congress, their MPs and their MEPs. ‘Save the Awá’ was spelled in snow in Amsterdam and on the wall of a shopping mall in western Australia. The multi-media campaign gave rise to thousands of voices speaking out for the Awá. For two years Survival International has fervently campaigned for the Brazilian government to remove all non-Indian invaders from the Awá’s territory and to protect the Awá and their lands.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |