
An Indian woman from Earth’s most threatened tribe is fighting for her life after being contacted in Brazil’s north-eastern Amazon rainforest.
Jakarewyj, a member of the Awá tribe, has contracted flu and a severe respiratory disease after her group was “surrounded by loggers” and contacted in late December 2014. Since then, her health has deteriorated rapidly and she is now emaciated and desperately ill.
According to other settled Awá in the village where Jakarewyj and Amakaria – the leader of the group – are living, Jakarewyj’s husband and other relatives previously died of flu in the forest.
“They were surrounded by loggers. We heard lots of noise from the chainsaws nearby and the tractors carving roads to transport the wood, and there were many trees marked for felling,” a settled Awá told CIMI, a Brazilian NGO.
The Awá’s forest has been heavily invaded by loggers, ranchers and settlers since the Great Carajás Project – funded by the European Union and World Bank – was implemented in the 1980s.
After a two-year campaign by Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, the Brazilian authorities removed illegal invaders from one of the Awá’s territories in January 2014. According to media reports, 173 sawmills were recently closed near the Awá area.
Following Survival’s campaign, a government operation has removed most loggers and settlers from the key Awá territory, but logging continues in other territories where they live. (Photo: Sarah Shenker/Survival)
But the authorities still have to put in place a long-term protection plan to stop the loggers from returning – and other Awá territories continue to be invaded.Earlier this week, mining giant Vale started work to expand its railway line which runs directly past the Awá’s forest. The Awá are opposed to the expansion, which they say will scare away the game they hunt, create more noise and result in further invasion of their land.
Carlos Travassos, head of Brazil’s isolated Indians department, warned that the Awá were threatened with “genocide” because of illegal logging on their land.
The Awá and Survival International have called on the Brazilian authorities to send a specialist health team to treat Jakarewyj’s illness as a matter of urgency.
Uncontacted tribal peoples are the most vulnerable societies on the planet. First contact often results in the outbreak of devastating epidemics, which can lead to the decimation of entire tribes.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “This horrific situation shows it’s vital for government to put a proper health plan in place for uncontacted Indians. Of course, these tragedies need never happen if the law was upheld and uncontacted tribes’ land protected. Brazil needs to act quickly to stop the deaths of yet more innocent Awá.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.