Isolated, But For How Long?
Indigenous Guajajara filmmakers have released a documentary drawing attention to the dramatic situation of their isolated relatives, the Awá Guajá, of the Araribóia Indigenous Land, one of the most endangered in Amazonia.
By Clara Roman , ISA collaborator
Photos: Flay Guajajara / ISA — Eliza Cappai/Greenpeace
Translation: Philip Somervell
“This was an area of logging invasions, so we took possession of our territory, and the territory of the most vulnerable Indians in the world, the Awá Guajá”, explains Olímpio Guajajara, while moving through a deforested area. The remaining standing forest of the Araribóia Indigenous Land (IL) in the Maranhão Amazon can be seen in the background. “We cannot allow the invasion to take possession of our territory. Because there is no other territory for us, if we leave”. There are 37,730 deforested hectares in the IL. Forest degradation, which includes theft of wood, affects 34% of the territory.
This scene is part of the mini-documentary “Ka’a Zar Ukize Wá — The Owners of the Forest in Danger” (Os Donos da Floresta em Perigo in Portuguese), a cry for help from the grave situation of the isolated indigenous people of the Awá Guajá ethnic group who share the Araribóia Indigenous Land with their Guajajara relatives. The 13-minute short received its premiere on the 23rd of July at the Unibes Cultural closing the 25 Years of Socio-Environmental Cinema ISA Exhibition.
The film is also a tool of mobilisation for the Guardians of the Forest (Guardiões da Floresta), a group coordinated by Olímpio Guajajara, to raise support to continue working on the protection of the territory. There are 120 guajajaras fighting to protect what remains of the forest on their land and to safeguard the existence of their isolated relatives through monitoring and surveillance.
The Awá Guajá intrinsically depend on the forest for survival — for hunting, gathering and water. However, in the Araribóia Indigenous Land the forest is under serious threat. In its surrounding areas, nothing remains standing. Official data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) shows that Maranhão has deforested 46% of its forest cover. In the six municipalities surrounding the IL, the number is greater: 52.5%. This is why loggers need to illegally enter the Indigenous Land to steal wood; to supply the region’s sawmills and obtain raw material for stakes used by the farms in this area of Maranhão.
Watch the movie:
Over the last 10 months, the ISA deforestation monitoring system registered a monthly average of 517 deforestation alerts and over 1,200km of byroads and logging trails within the IL.
“Degradation of the forest from illegal logging is not a new process in this territory. The process is responsible for causing cycles of dryness and fires in the forest, which severely affect the production of food and the maintenance of water resources. And, in Araribóia, we are reaching a point of no return with the forest”, says Antonio Oviedo, an ISA researcher.
In addition to looking in detail at the extreme tension and conflict of the situation in Araribóia, the mini-documentary shows images of an unexpected encounter. In August of 2018, some Guajajaras came across an Awá Guajá group during a hunt in the forest. The prey was to be eaten during the celebrations of Menina Moça, a traditional ceremony marking the passage of girls to adolescence. Except that, halfway through the hunting expedition, the Guajajara came before the camp of their isolated relatives.
The encounter was captured by cameraman Flay Guajajara, a member of Mídia Índia, a collective of indigenous communicators of various ethnicities. Flay directed the documentary in partnership with Erisvan and Edivan Guajajara, who also form part of the collective.
The sequence of images of the fortuitous encounter is breathtaking. Flay and his group find the Awá Guajá camp — their arrows, hammocks and tapiris. Flay then senses the return of the Indians and hides a few metres away in a tree, capturing on camera the moment when the indigenous people return and notice that unknown people have passed through — from the tools left as gifts, but also from the scent.
The Guajajara have always respected the will of their Awá Guajá relatives to not be contacted or disturbed in their isolation. But the images from the short film serve to alert the world about the vulnerable situation these Indians are in, who can at any moment unexpectedly encounter not their relatives but hunters or loggers who do not want their presence. The outcome, should this hypothesis materialise, could be tragic.
“What these isolados (the name given to isolated indigenous people) are living is survival. The hunger, the thirst, the sadness, the absence of relatives, the absence of spouses. The need to keep their children quiet because a cry from them could alert people who want to kill them,” explains Uirá Garcia, a postdoctoral fellow in anthropology and professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). Deforestation analysis carried out by ISA shows the illegal logging fronts around 5km away from the camp shown in the film.
If nothing is done to interrupt the cycle of invasions and exploitation in the Araribóia IL, unwanted contact or imminent death are the most probable outcomes for these people who have resisted for centuries in order to live in peace in the forest. “These people, whose image was captured, were frightened by the approach. This shows the degree of vulnerability and threat which they are going through. This population needs its territory to be free and protected to continue existing,” says Sônia Guajajara, a leadership representative of Apib (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), giving her account in the documentary.
The documentary of the young Guajajara filmmakers was produced in partnership with ISA and the Catitu Institute, with support from Survival International and If Not Us Then Who? Support the work of the Guardians of the Forest and help protect the Araribóia Indigenous Land and the Awá Guajá people.
